


t LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, t 

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f -/ — t 

I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. J 



>1 



OU TLINES 



OF THE 



1FE AN£ PUBLIC SERVICES, 



CIVIL AND MILITARY, 



OP 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 



BY 



CALEB CUSHING 



BOSTON: 

WEEKS, JORDAN AND COMPANY. 

1840. 



OUTLINES 



OF THE 



LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



CIVIL AND MILITARY, 



OF 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 



OF 



. »» 




BOSTON: 
WEEKS, JORDAN AND COMPANY. 

1840. 



TERMS. 



$6 00 per hundred— $48 00 per thousand— $425 
for ten thousand. 



;! Who is General Harrison ? The son of one of the signers of 
the Declaration of Independence who spent the greater part of his 
large fortune, in redeeming the pledge he then gave, of his ' fortune, 
life and sacred honor,' to secure the liberties of his country. 

" Of the career of General Harrison 1 need not speak — the histo- 
ry of the West, is his history. For forty years he has been identi- 
fied with its interests, its perils and its hopes. Universally beloved 
in the walks of peace, and distinguished by his ability in the councils 
of his country, he has yet been more illustriously distinguished in 
the field. 

" During the late war, he was longer in active service than any 
other General officer ; he was perhaps oftener in action than any one 
of them, and never sustained a defeat." — [Col. Richard ML John- 
son's Speech in Congress. 

James Madison, in a special message to Congress, De- 
cember 18, 1811, said . 

" While it is deeply lamented that so many valuable lives have 
been lost in the action which took place on the 7th ultimo, Congress 
will see with satisfaction the dauntless spirit of fortitude, victorious- 
ly displayed by every description of troops engaged, as well as the col- 
lected firmness which distinguished their commander on an occasion re- 
quiring the utmost exertions of valor and discipline. 



In the Legislature of Indiana, on the 12th of Novem- 
ber, 1811, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, 
Gen. William Johnson, thus addressed Gen. Harrison : 

*' Sir — The House of Representatives of the Indiana Territory, in 
their own name, and in behalf of their constituents, most cordially 
reciprocate the congratulations of your Excellency on the glorious 
result of the late sanguinary conflict with the Shawnee Prophet, and 
the tribes of Indians confederated with him ; when we see displayed 
in behalf of our country, not only the consummate abilities of the 
General, but the heroism of the man ; and'when we take into view 
the benefits which must result to that country from those exertions, 
we cannot, for a moment, withhold our meed of applause." 



Legislature of Kentucky, January 7, 1812. 

Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the State 
1* 



of Kentucky, that in the late campaign against the Indians, upon the 
Wabash, Gov. William Henry Harrison has behaved like a hero, 
a patriot and a general ; and that, for his cool, deliberate, skilful and 
gallant conduct in the battle of Tippecanoe, he well deserves the 
warmest thanks of his country and his nation. 

Resolution directing the medals to be struck, and, to- 
gether with the thanks of Congress, presented to Major 
General Harrison and Governor Shelby, and for other 
purposes. 

Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the Uni- 
ted States of America in Congress assembled, That the thanks of 
Congress be, and they are hereby presented to Major General Wil- 
liam Henrt Harrison and Isaac Shelby, late Governor of Ken- 
tucky, and, through them, to the officers and men under their com- 
mand, for their gallantry and good conduct in defeating the combined 
British and Indian forces under Major General Proctor, on the 
Thames, in Upper Canada, on the fifth of October, one thousand 
eight hundred and thirteen, capturing the British army, with their 
baggage, camp equipage and artillery ; and that the President of the 
United States be requested to cause two gold medals to be struck, 
emblematical of his triumph, and presented to General Harrison and 
Isaac Shelby, late Governor of Kentucky. H. CL.AY, 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
JOHN GAILLARD, 
President of the Senate, pro tempore. 

April 4, 1818.— Approved. JAMES MONROE. 



TO THE PEOPLE OF THE THIRD DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

Since the late Convention assembled at Harrisburg, I 
have examined, with some care, the public despatches, 
speeches, and acts of William Henry Harrison, nomina- 
ted by that Convention as a candidate for the office of 
President of the United States, and have prepared, from 
such authentic materials as were accessible to me a re- 
lation of the events of his life : which I beg leave most 
respectfully, to present to your consideration. 

C. CUSHING. 

In Congress, 10th Feb. 1840. 



OUTLINES 



OF THE 



LIFE OF HARRISON 



William Henry Harrison being now before the 
people of the United States as a candidate for the 
Presidency, it naturally follows that the events of 
his life, and the public service he has performed, 
should become objects of general interest and atten- 
tion. Happily there exist ample means of authentic 
information to satisfy the public curiosity concerning 
him ; for the history of the Western States, during 
the period of their early struggles and triumphs, is 
also his history ; and his fame is identified with that 
of the teeming myriads of the Valley of the Mis- 
sissippi. A brief retrospect of his career, civil and 
military, while it exhibits the character and acts of 
an able statesman, a high-minded patriot, a brave 
soldier, and a successful commander, will approve 
and justify the confidence and respect of his coun- 
trymen, in proposing to raise him to the eminent 
post of Chief Magistrate of the Union. 

birth and education. 

Harrison was born of the blood, and bred in the 
school, of the patriots of the Revolution. That 
was a period, when a single-hearted purity of pur- 



8 

pose and a lofty self-devotion of principle animated 
the public men of the day. In the Congress of the 
Thirteen States, each State, and every Representa- 
tive of either State, contended to see which would 
most disinterestedly serve their common country. — 
When a Commander-in Chief of the armies of In- 
dependence was to be appointed, Massachusetts has- 
tened to sacrifice her own local claims and preferen- 
ces in behalf of George Washington of Virginia. — 
When John Hancock, elected President of Congress, 
modestly hesitated to assume that important station, 
Benjamin Harrison, of Virginia, placed him with 
gentle force in the Presidential chair, exclaiming, 
' We will show mother Britain how little we care 
for her, by making a Massachusetts man our Presi- 
dent, whom she has excluded from pardon, by pub- 
lic proclamation. 5 In fact, Benjamin Harrison, act- 
ing in the spirit of the times, postponed his own 
pretensions in favor of Hancock. His name is en- 
rolled for immortality among the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence. At a subsequent pe- 
riod, as Governor of Virginia, he exerted all the en- 
ergies of his decided and powerful mind in the ap- 
plication of the resources of that great Common- 
wealth, to the promotion of the cause of the Revo- 
lution. 

William Henry, third son of Benjamin Harrison, 
was born at Berkley, in Charles city county, Virgin- 
ia, the 9th of February, 1773, and educated at 
Hampden Sidney College. His father died in 1791, 
having expended a large fortune in the service of his 
country during the Revolution, in Congress, as 
Chairman of the Board of War, and otherwise, and 
as Governor of Virginia ; and thus leaving to his 
children little inheritance, save the example and les- 
sons of his patriotism and love of liberty. Depend- 
ant on his own exertions, and preparing to enter life 
at an interval of peace, he had applied himself as- 
siduously to the study of medicine ; but, before long, 



the hostilities of the Indians in the Northwest be- 
gan to awaken public solicitude; and he felt irresist- 
ibly impelled to relinquish his professional pursuits, 
and to dedicate his life to the defence of his coun- 
try. This inclination was combatted, but in vain, 
by his guardian, Robert Morris. It was heartily 
approved, however, by General Washington, the 
intimate friend of his father, and then President of 
the United States, who appreciated the generous 
motives of young Harrison, and gave him an ap- 
pointment of ensign of artillery in the troops des- 
tined to operate on the Ohio. 

SERVICES UNDER WAYNE. 

It was no holiday service in which Harrison was 
to learn the duties of a soldier. The Northwest, at 
that time, thinly inhabited by the hardy pioneer set- 
tlers, was overrun by numerous bands of hostile In- 
dians, their enmity to the United States, stimulated 
and fostered by the intrigues of Great Britain. In- 
deed, the British ministers treated the years imme- 
diately following the war of Independence as an im- 
perfect truce, rather than an assured peace. Not- 
withstanding the efforts of the United States, dur- 
ing the war of Independence, to induce the British 
Government to allow the Indians to stand neutral 
during that contest, — notwithstanding the indignant 
denunciation of the policy of Great Britain in this 
respect, by such men as Chatham and Burke, in the 
British Parliament, — the Ministers armed the In- 
dians on the frontier, and let loose upon our defence- 
less women and children, the savage instruments of 
massacre and conflagration. Thus, the life of the 
early settlers in the West, was one of fearful dan- 
ger, or of continual contest with a foe who recog- 
nized no rules of civilized warfare. When the in- 
dependence of the United States was at length ac- 
knowledged by Great Britain, our people considered 



lu 

in good faith that peace was come, and the tide of 
their emigration began to set in a steady stream to 
the fertile fields of the West. But they found that 
the British Government persisted, in violation of 
treaty, in retaining military possession of the great 
frontier posts in the Northwest ; that she still fo- 
mented the hostile passions of the Indians, and sup- 
plied them with arms ; and that she was prompting 
and combining them in a project to drive our people- 
out of the Northwest, and to establish, between the 
Ohio and the Lakes, a great independent Indian 
Empire, looking to her for protection, and thus res- 
toring to her influence one half of the territory 
nominally recognized as ours by the Treaty of Peace. 
Between 1783 and 1789, it is estimated that fifteen * 
hundred men, women and children were killed or ta- 
ken prisoners by the Indians on the waters of the 
Ohio, and an incalculable amount of property plun- 
dered or destroyed. At length, a formal war broke 
out, and its opening events were most disastrous to 
the United States. First, came the defeat of Gen- 
eral Harmar, and the dispersion of the army under 
his command. Next, General St. Clair, with a still 
larger force, was defeated, with great loss, by the 
confederated Indians under Little Turtle. The 
whole country was now filled with consternation. — 
Men, who would have cheerfully gone to the en- 
counter of regular troops in the field, shrunk from 
the hardships of a laborious service in the wilderness 
of the West, and from exposure to the rifle and 
tomahawk of the merciless Indian. Great as were 
the difficulties of the case, however, General Wash- 
ington met them with his characteristic vigor and 
firmness. The war had ceased to be an affair of the 
frontier : it had assumed national importance. — 
General Anthony Wayne, an officer who had won 
a merited distinction in the Revolutionary War, by 
that union of sound judgment and successful daring, 
which constitutes the highest military talent, was 



11 

selected to take the command in the Northwest.— 
But an army was to be created as well as a comman- 
der found ; for the previous army had been nearly 
annihilated in the defeats of Harmar and St. Clair ; 
and most of the experienced officers were slain or 
had resigned their commissions. Accordingly, the 
army was newly organized ; and the first business of 
General Wayne was to discipline his raw levies, to 
give them the habit and skill of combined action, 
and, above all to reinfuse into the troops the neces- 
sary confidence, which the calamitous campaigns of 
Harmar and St. Clair had done so much to destroy. 
Assiduous exercises in the camp, toilsome marches, 
incessant watching and hard fare on the way, dead- 
ly peril in the field, — such was the life of the troops 
led by General Wayne to redeem the honor of the 
country, and deliver the Northwest from dismay 
and desolation. 

These were the circumstances, amid which, in 
the campaign of 1791, Harrison, at the age of eigh- 
teen, commenced his career of public duties. On 
receiving his commission, he repaired immediately 
to join his regiment, then stationed at Fort Wash- 
ington, where he arrived just after the defeat of 
General St. Clair, to witness the gathering in of the 
scattered fragments of that officer's late gallant ar- 
my, and to co-operate in maintaining the frontier 
outposts against the victorious Indians. Harrison's 
young and slender form was deemed by his friends 
hardly robust enough to cope with the hardships 
and privations of an arduous winter service in such 
a region and at such a time. But the boldness and 
vigor of his character, his early prudence, and the 
temperate habits, notwithstanding the temptation's 
of a soldier's life, he sedulously cultivated, prepared 
him to endure, without injury, the severe toils and 
exposures of his after life, and bore him triumphant- 
ly through all the difficulties and dangers of his po- 
sition. 



12 ' 

His first detailed service was to command an es- 
cort bound ior Fort Hamilton ; a duty which, young 
as he was, he discharged with so much ability and 
judgment as to elicit the commendation of St. Clair. 

In 1792, Harrison was promoted to the rank of 
Lieutenant, and on joining the legion under General 
Wayne, was selected by him as one of his aids-de- 
camp, in which capacity he served during the rest of 
the war. The appointment was as honorable as it 
was useful to Harrison ; for General Wayne was a 
man, who looked only to personal merit in the offi- 
cers he distinguished ; and employment under his 
immediate eye, was a severe school of discipline, 
courage, and ability, which necessarily exacted high 
qualities, and afforded the best field for their devel- 
opment and exercise. 

Wayne's army left Pittsburg toward the close of 
1792, and as the organization and discipline of the 
troops advanced, proceeded first to Legionville, at 
the mouth of Beaver, then to Fort Washington, 
(Cincinnati) and finally to Greenville toward the 
Miami. Negotiation for peace had meanwhile gone 
on without results. In December, 1793, a body of 
troops was despatched to take possession of the bat- 
tle field of St. Clair's defeat, and to fortify a posi- 
tion there, called Fort Recovery. In the course of 
the general order, issued on that occasion, General 
Wayne says : c The Commander-in-Chief also re- 
quests Major Mills, Captains de Butts and Butler, 
Lieutenant Harrison, and Dr. Scott, to accept 
his best thanks for their voluntary .aid and services 
on the occasion.' Harrison had thus early earned a 
name in history. 

Passing over the lesser incidents of war, it will 
be sufficient to dwell on the crowning victory of the 
20th August, 1794. Wayne had advanced into the 
verv heart of the Indian country, at the head of the 
United States troops, and a gallant band of Ken 
tuckians under General Charles Scott. He encoun 



13 

tered the combined force of the hostile Indians, with 
volunteers and militia from Canada, numbering 
2,000 in all, at the foot of the Miami Rapids, in the 
vicinity of a British fort and garrison recently set 
up in our territory, and with a force less than half 
that of the enemy, gained a complete and splendid 
victory. In his despatch to the President, giving an 
account of the victory, General Wayne says: 

" The bravery and conduct of every officer be- 
longing to the army, from the generals down to the 
ensigns, merit my highest approbation. There 
were, however, some, whose rank and situation 
placed their conduct in a very conspicuous point of 
view, and which I observed with pleasure and most 
lively gratitude ; among whom I beg leave to men- 
tion Brigadier General Wilkinson, and Colonel 
Hamtramack, the commandant of the right and left 
wings of the legion, whose brave example inspired 
the troops ; and to these I must add the names of 
my faithful and gallant aids-de-camp Captains Be 
Butts and T. Lewis, and Lieutenant Harrison, 
who, with the Adjutant General Major Mills, ren- 
dered the most essential service by communicating 
my orders in every direction, and by their conduct 
and bravery exciting the troops to press for victory." 

Indeed, there are veterans of that well fought 
field, who remember and honor the gallantry of 
young Harrison in rallying our troops to battle. 

This engagement, not only broke the power of 
the Indians for the time being, and ended the war 
by the treaty of Greenville, but had other important 
consequences in compelling Great Britain to surren- 
der the frontier posts she had so long intrustively 
held, and to conclude the treaty of 1794, commonly 
called Jay's Treaty. 

Previous to this, however, Harrison being advan- 
ced to the rank of Captain, was placed in command 
of Fort Washington, with extensive discretionary 
powers to be used according to the requisition of 
2 



14 

circumstances, and with various specific delicate d, 
ties devolved on him by the yet unquiet conditio 
of the Ohio and Mississippi country. 

While stationed in this command, Captain Han,. 
son married the daughter of John Cleves Svmme!^ 
the founder of the Miami settlements ; a lady wl 
has been his estimable companion through life, tl 
consort of his toils and vicissitudes, and the witne 
of his fame and his honor. 



1 



SECRETARY OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. 



On the death of General Wayne, in 1797, Han- 
son perceiving that the exigencies of war were pa: 
sed, and that there was no longer an opportunity t 
serve his country in the field, resigned his commit 
sjon in the army, and was immediately appointe 
Secretary of the Northwest Territory. Here, i: 
the discharge of the civil duties incumbent on hi 
office, he became intimately associated with the brav 
and hardy people around him, and learned to under 
stand and duly estimate the character, wants, an< 
wishes of his countrymen, — studying the practica 
lessons of life in the great volume of°nature, as un- 
folded to him by daily intercourse, in the cabin o] 
the settler, the hunter's lodge, the council chamber, 
and in social meetings, with the free spirited pioneers 
of the West. 

DELEGATE IN CONGRESS. 

When, according to then existing system, the 
Northwestern Territory was admitted to a repre- 
sentation in Congress, the signal abilities, not less 
than the personal popularity of Harrison, pointed 
him out to the people as the fittest person to repre- 
sent them ; and, on the opening of the sixth Con- 
gress, December 2d, 1799, he took his seat, as the 
Delegate of the Territory in the House of Repre- 



15 

entatives, being then but twenty-six years of age. 

He distinguished himself in that Congress by pro- 

>osing and carrying through a series of measures, 

'ill-important immediately to his constituents, and, 

ii their effects, eminently beneficial to the whole 

West, for a radical change in the method of making 

ales of the public lands. 

This, of course, the interest in the soil, was the 
\ uestion of questions in a new country. At that 
,ime, the public lands, except in peculiar situations, 
vere offered only in large tracts, of at least four 
;housand acres. The purchase of so large a tract 
:)f land required considerable means, and gave all 
advantage to the capitalist, who bought for resale, 
and imposed every disadvantage on the actual set- 
tlers. These last were generally poor men, whose 
•bold hearts and strong arms were to win the country 
from the savages, clear the soil, and constitute the 
very bone and sinew of the population ; but who 
yei, by the system of sales in use, were almost de- 
barred from the rights of freeholders, except by pur- 
chase, at second hand, from the great land-owners. 
In some instances, very extensive grants had been 
made to companies or individuals ; the operation of 
all which, if continued without change, would have 
been to build up a class of rich proprietors, with the 
mass of the people in the condition of mere tenants 
on their princely estates. Nothing could have been 
more inequitable, nothing more favorable to the 
Few, nothing less so the Many. 

With this subject, in all its bearings, Harrison 
was practically familiar ; and, young as he was, and 
a new member, too, the House deferred to his 
knowledge and experience and the sagacity of his 
views on this great subject. At his motion a select 
committee was raised to investigate the matter, of 
which he was appointed chairman, and the commit- 
tee adopted his ideas ; he was sufficiently supported 
in the committee by Mr. Gallatin, and their report 



16 

recommended that the public lands be, in the first 
place, offered at public sale, in half sections of 320 
acres ; that lands not bid off at public sales should 
remain for private entry at the minimum govern- 
ment price ; and that, for the convenience of the 
settlers, land offices should be opened in the region 
of the sales. Relying .upon the justice of his cause, 
and his intimate knowledge of the subject, and with 
an ardent zeal and a ready and manly eloquence at ' 
his command, he succeeded in convincing Congress 
of the wisdom of these ideas, and procuring the 
passage of a law in conformity therewith. Subse- 
quently, the same ideas were still further carried out 
by authorizing the sale of the public lands in still 
smaller subdivisions* and at a reduced price. 

Encouraged by his success in this measure, he 
introduced and carried another for a change in the 
mode of locating military warrants. By these 
measures, he at once secured the gratitude of his 
constituents, and acquired standing and character as 
an able statesman ; for the reforms thus effected 
were of the utmost possible consequence to the wel- 
fare of the West. Now, when settlers poured, 
with augmented rapidity, into the valley of the 
Ohio, the land was no longer engrossed by monop- 
olists, but every man could be the master of a free- 
hold, suited to his views. Who can say how much 
the prosperity and population of the West might 
not have been retarded, if the former defective sys- 
tem had been persevered in by Congress ? Thanks 
to the judgment and efforts of Harrison, other 
counsels prevailed. 

GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. 

When, soon afterwards, the Northwest Territo- 
ry was divided, and the Territory of Indiana estab- 
lished, public opinion, the wishes of the inhabitants, 
and the confidence of the Executive in his capacity 



17 

and integrity, designated Harrison to be its Gover- 
nor. He received the appointment in 1800 ; and 
immediately entered upon the difficult and responsi- 
ble duties of his Government ; being first appointed 
by Mr. Adams, and afterwards by Mr. Jefferson. 

The new Territory embraced the vast region 
now divided into Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin ; 
for a period of nearly two years, from 1803 to 1805, 
the whole of Louisiana was appended to it, and 
Michigan was for a time added, on the admission of 
Ohio into the Union. In the very outset, howev- 
er, the limits of Governor Harrison's jurisdiction 
was sufficiently extensive. His powers were not 
less so ; for the Territory had no separate Legisla- 
ture, and all the functions of government, of course, 
appertained to the United States, and were de- 
volved on the Governor. 

It was a new country, whose institutions were 
yet to be formed. The white population was 
thinly scattered over a wide region. There were 
three principal settlements only : one at Vincennes, 
on the Wabash, which was the capital ; another, 
known as Clark's grant, at the Falls of the Ohio ; 
and the third in the American Bottom, from Kas- 
kaskia to Cahoika. Between these chief settle- 
ments the means of communication were imperfect, 
and the intermediate country was in the possession 
of the Indians, who, beside, occupied the wide 
wilderness beyond the settlements. The Indians 
were restless and dissatisfied, given to plunder and 
murder, even in the periods of professed peace, and 
kept in a state of perpetual irritation against the 
United States by the intrigues of the British Gov- 
ernment, whose agents supplied them with arms 
and ammunition, infuriated them with ardent spir- 
its, and perpetually incited them to war and rapine. 
All the endeavors of the United States (and they 
were unceasing) to allure the Indians to the arts of 
peace, — to civilize and christianize them, — to save 



18 

them from the self-degradation of their own pecu 
liar vices of idleness, intemperance, and poverty, — 
were neutralized by the officers of Britain, whose 
policy it was to keep them ready maddened to her 
hand, to be let slip, at a word, on the frontier set- 
tlements of the Ohio and the Mississippi. 

Such was the nature of the country, and such 
that of the inhabitants. The powers and the 
duties of the Governor, numerous, complicated, 
and extensive, authorized and required him to 
adopt and publish such laws of the original States, 
criminal and civil, as might be necessary and best 
suited to the circumstances of the Territory, — to 
appoint all magistrates and other officers, civil and 
military, below the rank of General, — to command 
the militia, — to divide the Territory into counties 
and townships, — to superintend the affairs of the 
Indians, — and, in general, to represent the plenary 
authority of the Federal Government in a vast 
variety of administrative cares and functions. And, 
in 1803, Mr. Jefferson added to all these great pow- 
ers that of general and sole commissioner to treat 
with the Indian tribes of the Northwest on the 
subject of their boundaries and lands. 

Thus, it will be seen that, for some time, Gover- 
nor Harrison was, in effect, the lawgiver of the 
people of the Northwest ; that he was their civil 
and military governor, and the fountain of trust and 
office ; their general agent with the Federal Gov 
ernment, and the superintendent of, and negotiator 
with, the numerous Indians between the Ohio, the 
Lakes, and the Mississippi. 

In the latter capacity, he concluded, in the course 
of his administration, thirteen important treaties 
with the different tribes, and obtained cessions, on 
the most advantageous terms, of not less than sixty 
millions of acres of land, embracing a large portion 
of the richest region in the Northwest ; at the 
same time, that he, for a long period, preserved the 



19 

peace within his jurisdiction, and counteracted all 
the machinations of the agents and officers of Great 
Britain to embroil our people with the savages, and 
taught the latter, in the course of his frequent asso- 
ciation with them, to respect his undaunted firm- 
ness, while they were conciliated by his moderation, 
forbearance, and integrity. 

His integrity, indeed, not in this relation only, 
but, in all the multifarious trusts committed to him, 
some of them of the most delicate and discriminat- 
ing kind, was equally manifest throughout his long 
administration of the affairs of the Northwest. His 
unspotted purity, in the disbursement of the large 
sums of public money, which passed through his 
hands, if not then remarkable in men so situated, 
was a virtue, which later experience has taught his 
countrymen to appreciate as it deserves. Nor in 
reference to money only, but likewise in the man- 
agement of his various trusts relating to the public 
lands, the same disinterested integrity of principle 
was characteristic of his conduct. Thus, to mention 
but one example, to him was confided the sole au- 
thority of confirming grants of land to a numerous 
class of individuals, having certain equitable claims 
to be approved and sanctioned by him. Here, also, 
later experience has demonstrated the stainless in- 
tegrity of his character, by showing the opportuni- 
ties he possessed, (had he chosen to descend to use 
them,) to gain wealth by indirect means. Yet his 
conduct in this respect, as in all others, is univer- 
sally admitted to have been not only strictly and 
scrupulously upright, but so honorable, just, and 
true, as to be beyond the reach of suspicion. 

Once, and only once, was his integrity called in 
question. One Mcintosh, for some insignificant 
cause of offence, accused Governor Harrison of 
having defrauded the Indians in the treaty of Fort 
Wayne ; and the accused justly conceived that it 
was due to his own fame, and to the interests of the 



20 

General Government, that the charge should be 
fully investigated in a court of justice, whilst all the 
facts were fresh in the minds of the community. 
He instituted, therefore, an action for slander in the 
Supreme Court of the Territory, and every possible 
means was adopted to secure a free and fair investi- 
gation of the circumstances by committing the trial 
to a judge and a jury of admitted competency and 
impartiality between the parties. It was done ; 
and the evidence was so conclusive in favor of Gov- 
ernor Harrison, that the counsel for Mcintosh aban- 
doned the attempt to justify, and plead only in a 
mitigation of damages. The jury, however, ren- 
dered a verdict of four thousand dollars damages 
against Mcintosh ; whose property was levied upon 
to satisfy the judgment, and being brought in by an 
agent of the Governor, one-third of it was distrib- 
uted by him among the orphan children of some of 
his fellow-citizens who had died in battle, and the 
residue was restored to Mcintosh himself. No lan- 
guage of praise can add to the truth and force of 
the simple beauty of such examples of magnanimity 3 
disinterestedness and generosity. 

Governor Harrison did not willingly continue in 
the exercise of the large powers originally confided 
to him, any longer than the policy of the Federal 
Government required it of him ; and in 1805, partly 
at his pressing instance, the people of Indiana were 
authorized by Congress to elect a Legislative As- 
sembly and a Delegate to the House of Representa- 
tives. This change, while it divided the powers of 
the Governor, scarcely diminished his means of 
usefulness ; because the new form of government, 
participated in by the people, involved the originat- 
ing and discussion of new measures, adapted to the 
advanced state of the Territory. The departments 
of administration were to be modeled ; important 
laws to be enacted ; and public measures to be con- 
sidered by the Governor, in co-operation with the 



21 

representatives of the people. His speeches to the 
Legislature, at this period, are frank, manly, saga- 
ciously conceived, and well written public docu- 
ments, exhibiting a mind cultivated by study and 
reflection, zeal for the public service, and views of 
enlightened statesmanship, adapted to the circum- 
stances and the welfare of the Territory. In a 
word, in his civil capacity, as Governor of the Ter- 
ritory, he was a wise, upright, faithful, and success- 
ful administrator of the high powers entrusted to 
him by the General Government. 

It necessarily followed, that he enjoyed the high- 
est meed of active public service, which a statesman 
can hope for, — the highest, that is, next to the ap- 
probation of his own conscience, — namely, the con- 
sciousness of eminent usefulness, and of eminent 
popularity consequent thereon. When he first 
entered on the duties of his office, he avowed his 
intention to retain it no longer than his administra- 
tion should be satisfactory to the people of the 
Territory ; and at their request his commission was 
renewed at successive periods by Mr. Jefferson and 
Mr. Madison. His first appointment had come 
from the " Father of his country ; " and Adams, 
Jefferson, and Madison, each in succession, honored 
him with their confidence. In politics, he had been 
early 'identified with the Republicans ; and he tem- 
perately, but steadily, adhered to the maxims of 
that party ; deferring to the wishes of the people, 
and seeking to promote their interests, in the true 
spirit of enlightened republican patriotism. 

Hence, when Louisiana was separated from In- 
diana, the citizens of St. Louis expressed their 
sentiments of his administration as follows : 
" To His Excellency William H. Harrison, Gov- 
ernor, and the honorable the Judges of the In- 
diana Territory : 

" Gentlemen : An arduous public service as- 
signed you by the General Government of the 



22 

United States, is about to cease. The eve of the 
anniversary of American Independence will close 
the scene, and on that celebrated festival will be 
organized, under the most auspicious circumstan- 
ces, a Government for the Territory of Louisiana. 
Local situation and circumstances forbid the possi- 
bility of a permanent political connexion. This 
change, however congenial to our wishes, and con- 
ducive to our happiness, will not take effect without 
a respectful expression of our sentiments, to you, 
gentlemen, for your assiduity, attention, and disin- 
terested punctuality, in the temporary administra- 
tion of the government of Louisiana." 

The officers of the militia of St. Louis, on the 
same occasion, at the close of an address to the 
Governor, said : 

" Accept, sir, these sentiments as the pledge of 
our affectionate attachment to you, and to the mag- 
nanimous policy by which you have been guided. 
May the Chief Magistrate of the American nation 
duly estimate your worth and talents, and long 
keep you in a station, where you have it in your 
power to gain hearts by virtuous actions, and pro- 
mulgate laws among men who know how to respect 
you, and are acquainted with the extent of their 
own rights." 

In 1809, the House of Representatives of In- 
diana, in a resolution unanimously requesting of the 
President to reappoint Governor Harrison, used 
the following language : 

" They (the House of Representatives) cannot 
forbear recommending to, and requesting of, the 
President and Senate, most earnestly in their own 
names, and in the names of their constituents, the 
re-appomtment of their present Governor, William 
Henry Harrison : — because he possesses the good 
wishes and affections of a great majority of his 
fellow-citizens ; because they believe him to be sin- 
cerely attached to the Union, the prosperity of the 



23 

United States, and the administration of its govern- 
ment ; because they believe him in a superior degree 
capable of promoting the interest of our territory, 
from long experience and laborious attention to its 
concerns, irom his influence over the Indians, and 
wise and disinterested management of that depart- 
ment ; and because they have confidence in his vir- 
tues, talents, and republicanism." 

And the officers of the militia of Knox County, 
passed the following resolution : 

" Resolved, that the attention paid, and the unre- 
mitted exertions used, by William Henry Harrison, 
to organize and discipline, by frequent trainings, the 
militia of the territory, and the masterly skill and 
military talents displayed in such his exertions, to- 
gether with the anxious solicitude with which he 
has ever watched over the peace and happiness of 
the territory ; to which may be added, the confi- 
dence reposed in him by the neighboring tribes of 
Indians, and the great facility and ease with which 
he manages their affairs, induce this meeting to have 
great confidence in him, as eminently qualified to 
govern the territory, not only because of his superior 
talents, but also his integrity, patriotism, and firm 
attachment to the General Government." 

With these most honorable testimonials to his 
worth and capacity as Governor of the Territory of 
Indiana, this part of the subject may well be closed, 
for the purpose of proceeding to other matters of 
deep and wide interest. 

COMMISSIONER AND SUPERINTENDANT OF INDIAN 

AFFAIRS. 

We have seen that, in addition to his ordinary 
duties in the civil and military government of the 
Territory of Indiana, Governor Harrison was also 
Commissioner to treat with the Indians, and Super- 
intendant of Indian Affairs in the Northwest, in 



24 

which capacity he negotiated a large number of im- 
portant treaties, and conducted all the relations of 
the United States with the Indians, in a spirit of" 
mingled dignity, decision and humanity, alike honor- 
able to himself and to the Federal Government. 
His voluminous correspondence with the Govern- 
ment on these matters appears in the official docu- 
ments of the day, and is distinguished by minuteness 
of detail, the full and accurate statement of facts, a 
benevolent and enlightened policy, and a considerate 
regard, as well for the rights and interests of the 
Indians themselves, as of the whole inhabitants of 
the Territory. The same spirit of equity, forbear- 
ance, and manliness, in this respect, pervades his 
addresses to the Legislature of Indiana, whenever 
occasion called for any reference to the subject. 

Similar traits were manifested by him in his im- 
mediate intercourse with the Indians. This depart- 
ment of public duty, always a difficult one to dis- 
charge judiciously, was emphatically so at that 
period. The Northwest was then filled, not only 
with the tribes who had originally hunted there, 
but with the broken remnants of other tribes, — men 
whom the atrocious policy of Great Britain had in- 
veigled into war against us, and who, now smarting 
under successive defeats, and scattered over the 
country, constituted the ready elements of disorder, 
if any of the chances of events should offer them in- 
ducements to raise the hatchet anew. Nor were 
they without continual incitements to hostility. It 
was a part of the system of Great Britain, — a system 
not yet relinquished, — to assemble the tribes of the 
Northwest annually, at a convenient point on the 
Lakes, and there to pay and deliver to them a regu- 
lar war subsidy, as the price of their allegiance to 
Britain and enmity to the United States. _ The 
British traders in the Northwest spared no pains to 
misrepresent, the acts of the people and Government 
of the United States, and to thwart all our endeav- 
ors either to keep the peace in that region, or to 



21 

raise the Indians to the condition of a civilized and 
Christian people. There, too, as almost every- 
where else, the Indians were their own worst ene- 
mies, by their obstinate adherence to the usages of 
savage life, their repudiation of all regular govern- 
ment, and their consequent exposure to the criminal 
arts of bad men along the frontier, who, from avarice 
and profligacy, supplied a fatal nutriment to the 
constitutional vices of the Indians. Add to which, 
that mutual and long continued injuries, between 
the whites on the one hand and the Indians on the 
other, had infused into the minds of each, a feeling 
of reciprocal hatred, which was continually breaking 
forth into acts of common aggression. 

To conduct the business of the Indians in such 
circumstances, and to govern them, (as the Superin- 
tendent in fact must,) was in itself an affair of the 
utmost delicacy and difficulty, requiring the highest 
qualities of judgment, sagacity, and firmness. But 
the task was rendered still more arduous by the pe- 
culiar system of the United States Government. 
Governor Harrison was instructed to pursue, sedu- 
lously, a policy of peace with the Indians, to avoid 
all appearance of a hostile and jealous disposition 
towards them ; to practice forbearance and concilia- 
tion ; and to cultivate friendly relations at every 
hazard. He was to pursue this policy along an 
exposed frontier, in the midst of numerous tribes of 
Indians, who, from the causes already specified, 
were unusually fierce, turbulent, and vindictive, and 
who were incessantly stimulated to acts of outrage 
by the agents of Great Britain. It will be conceived 
that in such circumstances, the pacific spirit of our 
Government, while it imperfectly attained its object, 
never wholly stayed the work of desolation, aug- 
mented greatly the labors of the Governor. With 
(it has been well said) the savage war-whoop yell- 
ing on one hand, and a Government commanding 
peace on the other, — with a feeble settlement claim- 
ing protection at one point and a band of martial 
3 



26 

borderers demanding to be led to battle on another, — 
while the agents of a nation at peace with our own 
urged on the savages, and her military posts supplied 
them with arms, — there can scarcely be imagined a 
post requiring the exertions of greater skill, prudence 
and firmness, than that of the Governor of Indiana. 
For him there could be neither repose nor safety. 
He led the life of a warrior, yet discharged the duties 
of the civil magistrate. While executing the laws, and 
founding the institutions of a new State, he was con- 
tinually called to encounter danger in the defence of 
the homes of the people. Though compelled to re- 
strain the Indians and the whites by force of authority, 
it was his duty to interpose with each as a minister of 
benevolence on the part of the United States. 

Yet all these multifarious and most arduous duties 
Governor Harrison fulfilled with fidelity and with 
honor, and while affording efficient protection to the 
citizens of the country, and thus displaying all the tal- 
ents of a great statesmen and a brave officer, he never 
sullied his name with any act of military violence or 
gratuitous cruelty ; so that when war at length could 
no longer be averted, and it became incumbent on him 
to lead the forces of the Territory into the field, he 
bore thither the stainless banner of, — not a wanton as- 
sailant of the rights of others, but the patriotic defend- 
er of his country's altars and fre-side. 

INTERCOURSE WITH TECUMTHE AND THE PROPHET. 

For, strenuously as the United States Government, 
and Governor Harrison, acting under its orders, strove 
to avert a war, it became inevitable, through the 
operation of causes over which he had no control: 
namely, the persevering aggressions of Great Britain 
on the commerce and public rights of the United 
States, which ended in war between the two nations, 
preluded by Indian hostilities in the Northwest. 

At all times, as before stated, both during the rev- 



27 

olution and afterwards, as the incidents of St. Clair's 
and Wayne's campaign evinced, British agents were 
active in stirring up against us the Indians within the 
United States. The anticipation of a new war with 
the United States, redoubled their activity ; and they 
found efficient agents among the Indians themselves, 
in two Shawenee Chiefs, Tecumthe and his twin bro- 
ther, the Prophet. Tecumthe first began to be much 
known in 1806. He had conceived and matured a 
design, — the same which Pontiac had attempted in 
vain— to combine all the western tribes for the destruc- 
tion of the western settlements. He was daring, 
energetic, and sagacious in character, a shrewd think- 
er, a fluent speaker, an able warrior, and a skilful 
negotiator, animated by the most inextinguishable ha- 
tred against the United States. He had for his coad- 
jutor his brother Ol-li-wa-chi-ca, called the Prophet, 
who, though inferior to Tecumthe in most respects, 
was yet capable of aiding his brother efficiently, by 
reason of his influence over the superstitious Indians 
as a medicine man, pretending to be inspired by the 
the Great Spirit, and endowed by him with power and 
wisdom, to expel the white men from the Valley of 
the Mississispi, to redeem the red men from their pre- 
sent degradation, and to restore to them their ancient 
exclusive power in the New World. They surround- 
ed themselves with a lawless band of desperate and 
reckless men, the outcasts of different tribes, whom 
they at length established at a principal rendezvous 
on the Wabash, near the mouth of the Tippecanoe,— 
a place which gradually acquired the name of the 
Prophet's Town. 

Meanwhile, they were indefatigably employed in 
disturbing all the councils successively held, and en- 
deavoring to prevent every treaty attempted to be 
made. They took up and propagated the false idea, 
that all the lands in North America were the com- 
mon property of all the tribes, and that no sale of 
any part could be valid without the consent of all ; 



28 

and made this a pretext for interfering, whenever 
treaties were to be negociated by the United States 
with any portion of the Indians. Thus, by instiga- 
ting the Indians to acts of violence, and by filling their 
mind with fallacious notions of their power and their 
rights, Tecumthe, with the Prophet, constantly 
thwarted, and at last, to their own ruin, succeeded in 
defeating all the efforts of General Harrison to main- 
tain the peace of the frontiers. 

General hostilities first began to be openly threaten- 
ed on occasion of a treaty made by the Delawares, 
Miamis and Potawatoraies, in 1809, at Fort Wayne, 
ceding to the United States a tract of land on the Wa- 
bash. When this treaty was made, Tecumthe was 
absent; but on his return he threatened with death 
some of the chiefs concerned in the treaty. Hereupon, 
Governor Harrison despatched a message to inquire 
the cause of dissatisfaction with the treaty; and to 
assure him that any claim he might have to the lands 
which had been ceded were not effected by the treaty; 
that he might come to Vincennes and exhibit his pre- 
tensions; and if they were found to be valid, the land 
would either be given up or an ample compensation 
made for it. 

Tecumthe accepted the invitation, but came with 
four hundred warriors completely armed, instead of 
thirty as directed; giving to the people of Vincennes 
jnst apprehension that treachery was intended. Te- 
cumthe claimed for all the Indians of the country, a 
common right to all the lands in it; denied the right 
of any tribe to sell even to one another, much less to 
strangers: and therefore, claimed that the treaty of 
Fort Wayne was utterly void. Harrison replied, that 
when the whites came to this continent, they found 
the Miamis in occupation of all the country of the 
Wabash, at which time the Shawnees dwelt in Geor- 
gia, from whence they were driven by the Creeks; 
that the Miamis had consulted their own interest, as 
they had a right to do, in selling their own land on 



29 

terms satifactory to themselves ; and that the Shaw- 
nees had no right to come from a distant country, and 
undertake to control the Miamis in the disposition of 
their own property. Scarcely had the interpreter 
finished speaking these words, when Tecumthe fierce- 
ly exclaimed, " It is false !" and giving a signal to bis 
warriors, they sprang to their feet and raised their 
war-clubs, while Tecumthe continued to address the 
Indians, til a passionate tone and with violent gesti- 
culation. In this emergency, when every thing threat- 
ened the most fatal consequences to the surrounding 
whites, who were chiefly unarmed citizens, col lison was 
avoided by the intrepidity of the Governor. He ro.se 
immediately, and drew his sword ; but he restrained 
his guards, and calmly, but authoritatively, told Te- 
cumthe, that " he was a bad man ; that he would have 
no further talk with him ; that he must return to his 
camp, and take his departure from the settlements im- 
mediately ; and with that, the council was broken up, 
and Tecumthe and his warriors, awed by the in- 
trepidity and self-possession of Harrison withdrew in 
silence. 

The next morning, Tecumthe, perceiving that he 
had to deal with a man as vigilant and as bold as him- 
self, — one not to be daunted by a show of violence, nor 
circumvented by specious wiles, — apologized for the 
affront he had given, and solicited that the council 
might be renewed, to which the Governor consented. 
At the second council, Tecumthe no longer attempted 
to intimidate Harrison by his violence, or, at any rate, 
kept a better guard over his temper. He told the 
Governor that white men (British emissaries un- 
doubtedly) had advised him to do as he bad done, and 
that he was determined to maintin the old boundary : 
— all which the Governor said he would report to the 
President, and here the council ended. 

Still anxious to conciliate the dangerous chief, Gov- 
ernor Harrison went attended only by an interpreter, 
to his camp. Tecumthe received him with courtesy 



30 

and respect ; but signified the intention not to recede 
from the grounds taken at the council ;— as neither 
Tecumthe nor the Prophet was yet ready for open 
war, the matter rested here for a while. 

BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 

But as hostilities between the United States and 
Great Britain, became more and more imminent and 
certain, the audacity and violence of the Indians in- 
creased. Jn 1811, Tecumthe had assembled a new 
body of warriors at the Prophet's Town 5 and maraud- 
ing parties roved towards the settlements more fre- 
quently than ever. In the public documents, there is 
a great body of evidence to show that at that time a 
general commotion pervaded all the Indian tribes. 
Messengers went too and fro; the war belt was circu- 
lated ; arms and ammunitions were obtained from 
Upper Canada, in quantities beyond the usual yearly 
issue of presents by the British ; and thus every thing 
indicated the approach of a rising against the United 
States. The commission of a number of murders on 
the frontiers of Illinois and Indiana, the usual fore- 
runners of an Indian war, warned Governor Harrison 
to take measures for the defence of the Territory, and 
induced the Government to direct him to move with 
an armed force towards Tippecanoe, the centre and 
head quarters of all the intrigues of the savages, and 
the resort of the most desperate and daring of their 
men, and where it was known that a thousand hostile 
Indians were assembled, whom he was directed to dis- 
perse. 

Governor Harrison had collected a force of about 
nine hundred men, composed of the militia and vol- 
unteers of Indiana ; a small but gallant body of volun- 
teers from Kentucky, and a detachment of United 
States' troops. His first effort, like Wayne's, in the 
similar case before, was to prepare his troops for vic- 
tory by drilling them thoroughly in person, and organ- 



31 

izing them for victory ; and to this in no small part, 
the subsequent success was due. Thus prepared, he 
began his march from Fort Harrison, on the Wabash, 
on the 20th of October, 1811. His orders were most 
positive to avoid hostilities of any kind, or any degree, 
not indispensably required. These instructions com- 
pelled him, though marching into a hostile country, 
where a numerous force of Indians awaited him, yet 
to act on the defensive, to fight only when attacked, 
and thus in fact to leave to the Indians to fight or not 
as they chose, and to select their own time for battle. 
He was to advance in the hope, and with the endeavor 
to induce the Indians to make peace ; and yet to be 
ready at all times to encounter a treacherous foe, un- 
knowing where or when the death strug-gle might 
commence. To meet these conditions, it was necessa- 
ry to conduct the expedition at all times as in face of 
the enemy; to encamp in order of battle ; and to 
march in such form as to be able to repel an assault at 
a moment's warning. Of course, the utmost vigilance 
was requisite to guard against surprise; to avoid falling 
into ambuscades; and to secure the army from attack 
in a disadvantageous position. All this Harrison ac- 
complished, his own experience, wisdom and circum- 
spection, being ably seconded by the zeal and vigi- 
lance of his officers and troops. 

Proceeding thus, by a judicious feint, after reconnoi- 
tering and laying out a wagon road on one bank of the 
Wabash, which led the Indians to expect he would 
pass up on that side, he suddenly changed his route, 
crossed to the other bank, and thus marched to the 
Prophet's Town, without molestation or hindrance. 
He arrived on the 6th ol November. He had previ- 
ously sent forward some chiefs of the Delavvares and 
Miamis to endeavor to make peace ; but had heard 
nothing from them. Interpreters were now sent with 
the advanced guard, for the same purposes ; but were 
repelled with menace and insult. A second effort with 
a flag of truce, was made and failed. Governor Har- 



32 

rison had been urged by some of his officers to attack 
the Prophet's Town ; but, determined to persevere in 
the pursuit of peace and in the spirit of his instruc- 
tions, he refused to make the attack so long as any 
possibility remained, of the Indians complying with 
the demands of the Government. At length, the 
Prophet sent three of his Indians to propose a suspen- 
sion of hostilities and a meeting the next day to agree 
upon the terms of peace. But Governor Harrison 
knew too well the treacherous dispositicn of his adver- 
sary, to allow himself to be thrown off his guard. 
Two competent officers, Majors Clark and Taylor, 
were employed to select a suitable place to encamp 
advantageously, as in the enemy's presence, and where 
an attack could best be repelled. Accordingly, they 
examined the environs and selected an elevated spot, 
surrounded by wet prairie, and adequately supplied 
with wood and water ; and as Major Taylor has since 
declared, the selection was made according to their 
best judgment, ratified by that of nine tenths of 
the other officers. Indeed, the judiciousness of the 
selection they made, was proved, not only by the re- 
sults, but by subsequent observation and reflection ; 
for when the army of General Hopkins was there, in 
the following year, says M'Affee, the} all united in the 
opinion that a better spot to resist Indians, was not to 
be found in the whole country. 

Here, then, the army encamped, but with every 
thing ready for a night attack. The troops lay as they 
wnie to rise for battle, in all their clothes and accou- 
trements, the dragoons with their swords and pistols 
in their belts, and the infantry with their arms by their 
sides ; and it was the Governor's invariable practice, 
says M'Affee, to be ready to mount his horse at a mo- 
ment's warning. The entire camp, of course was sur- 
rounded by a cordon of sentinels, so posted as to give 
timely notice of any attack, and thus preclude as far 
as possible the danger of loss or confusion by surprise. 

The Governor had arisen before dawn on the morn- 
3* 



33 

ing of the 7th, — the sky being heavy with occasional 
rain, and clouds which obscured the moon — and sat 
conversing with his aids by the fire awaiting the sig- 
nal, which was in a few moments to have been given, 
for the troops to turn out. At this moment, one ot 
the sentinels gave the alarm by firing his piece, which 
was immediately followed by the war-whoop and a 
desperate charge of the Indians on the left flank. 

At that point, the guard giving way, the charge of 
the savages was received by tiie united regulars and 
volunteers under Captains Barton and Gniger, in the 
rear, who rose ready armed, formed in their appointed 
posts, and gallantly stood their ground. Upon the first 
alarm, the Governor mounted his horse and proceeded 
to the point of attack, and finding the line weakened 
there, ordered up two companies from the rear centre 
to reinforce it. Meanwhile, the camp-fires had been 
extinguished j»o as not to afford light to the Indians. 
As the Governor rode across the camp, Major Joseph 
H. Daviess, of Kentucky, one of the most popular men 
in the West, asked permission to charge a body of In- 
dians, concealed behind some trees near the left of the 
front line. In attempting this brave exploit, he fell, as 
did also Colonel Isaac White, of Indiana, who served 
as a volunteer under him. After which, the charge 
was repeated and the Indians dislodged from their 
covert by Captain Snelling. Perceiving the attack 
now to be severely felt on the right flank, the Govern- 
or led up another company to reinforce it, while doing 
which, his aid, Colonel Owen, of Kentucky, fell by his 
side. By this time, the battle had become general, 
and was maintained on all sides with desperate valor, 
until the day dawned, when the right and left flanks 
having been further strengthened, a simultaneous 
charge was made against the Indians on each side, 
who were thus put flight with great loss, and a glori- 
ous victory crowned the toils and dangers of the Amer- 
ican troops. 

Without taking a very active part in the contest, the 



34 

Prophet remained secure on a near eminence, chanting 
a war song, and animating his followers with the as- 
surance of miraculous aid from the Great Spirit in 
their favor, so as to insure them a victory. Tecumthe 
himself was not present, being at the South, endeavor- 
ing to combine the tribes in that quarter against the 
United States. But, animated by the Prophet, the In- 
dians fought with desperate and unprecedented valor, 
hand to hand, so as to render the battle of Tippecanoe 
one of the most memorable and decisive engagements 
ever fought between the Indians and the whites. The 
Indians attacked boldly, advancing and retreating by a 
rattling sound, made with deer hoofs. They were 
encountered with corresponding valor and resolution 
by Harrison's brave and spirited men. The Govern- 
or himself was unwearied in his exertions, personally 
inspecting and co-operating in all the operations of the 
engagement, ordering every important movement, re- 
peatedly leading the troops into action as any change 
of their position became requisite, and sharing all the 
perils of the bittle not only equally with the rest, but 
more so, because his person was more conspicuous, on 
horseback, known to every Indian. His intrepidity 
and self possession were admired by all. In the heat 
of the action, says the published journal of Adam 
Walker, a private soldier in the battle, " His voice was 
heard, and easily distinguished, giving his orders in 
the same cool and collected manner, with which he 
had been used to receive them on drill or parade. 
The confidence of the troops in the General was un- 
limited." 

Indeed his exposure in the field was not the only 
danger he incurred. If the Indians had met him in 
council as they first contemplated, it was a part of 
their plnn to assassinate him ; and two Winnebagoes 
had undertaken the enterprise. When afterwards the 
Prophet concluded to attack the Americans, a negro 
was engaged to" enter the camp and murder the Gov- 
ernor; but he was detected in the attempt, whilst 



35 

waiting near the Governor's marquee, and afterwards 
tried, convicted of the purpose, and sentenced to be 
shot. But as the negro lay tied and staked to the 
ground awaiting the hour of execution, the Governor 
could not resist the emotions of pity which his appear- 
ance excited, and ordered him to be discharged ; thus 
evincing the most compassionate feelings in associa- 
tion with the highest resolution and courage. 

The victory of Tippecanoe was justly deemed of 
the greatest importance to the country. If Harrison 
had been beaten, the triumphant bands of the Prophet, 
reinforced by other tribes recruited to his standard by 
the influence of Tecumthe, would have poured upon 
the settlements, tomahawk in hand, consigning the 
whole frontier to massacre and conflagration. The 
decisive blow struck at Tippecanoe, not only broke the 
power of the openly hostile, but at once decided the 
wavering, and quelled the rising spirit of the disconten- 
ted ; and restored peace and quiet to the exposed and , 
alarmed frontier. Indeed, the battle of Tippecanoe, 
where Harrison and the militia of Indiana, and the vol- 
unteers of Kentucky won imperishable honors, has be- 
come as classical ground in the memory of all patriotic 
hearts, and is now to be regarded as one of the monu- 
ments of the glory of the West. 

We shall be prepared, therefore, to learn, that in 
his message to Congress, soon afterwards Mr Madi- 
son said: — 

" Congress will see, with satisfaction, the dauntless 
spirit and fortitude, victorionsly displayed, by every 
description of the troops engaged, as well as the col- 
lected firmness which distinguished their commander, 
on an occasion requiring the utmost exertion of valor 
and discipline. It may reasonably be expected that 
the good effects of a critical defeat and dispersion of 
a combination of savages which appears to have been 
spreading to a greater extent, will be experienced, not 
only in the cessation of the murders, and depredations 



36 

committed on our frontier, but in the prevention of 
any hostile incursions otherwise to have been appre- 
hended." 

The Legislature of Indiana, in their address, said: 

" The House of Representatives of Indiana Terri- 
ritory, in their own name, and in behait* of their con- 
stituents, most cordially reciprocate the congratula- 
tions of your Excellency on the glorious result of the 
late sanguinary conflict with the Shawanee Prophet, 
and the tribes of Indians confederated with him ; 
when we see displayed in behalf of our country not 
only the consummate abilities of the General, but the 
heroism of the man ; and when we take into view the 
benefits which must result to that country from those 
exertions, we cannot for a moment withold our meed 
of applause." 

And the Legislature of Kentucky, on motion of Mr 
Crittenden, 

"Resolved, That in the late campaign against the 
Indians on the Wabash, Governor Wm. H. Harrison 
has, in the opinion of this Legislature, behaved like 
a hero, a patriot and a general ; and that for his cool, 
deliberate, skilful and gallant conduct in the late bat- 
tie of Tippecanoe, he well deserves the warmest 
thanks of the nation." 

MAJOR GENERAL OF THE KENTUCKY MILITIA. 

The tranquility which followed the battle of Tippe] 
canoe was the lull which precedes the storm. War 
with Great Britain was about to commence, and was 
actually declared on the 18th June, 1812. In antici- 
pation of it, the Lake Indians in the United States, 
always kept under pay by Great Britain, and those in 
Upper Canada subject to her immediate authority, 
stood ready to dash at a moment's warning on the in- 
habitants of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. When the 
war came, it found the Northwest without any im- 



37 

portant garrisoned posts on the frontier, except De- 
troit, without military depots and military stores, or 
munitions of war ; but it found the brave and hardy 
population, of all classes and conditions, full of zeal 
in their country's defence, and prompt to rush to the 
field. It became the immediate duty of all in authori- 
ty in the West to arm and embody the people suitably 
to the public exigency, under the leadership of a gen- 
eral of tried courage and ability. Every eye was in- 
stinctively turned to Harrison as the man of the cri- 
sis ; and he was by acclamation called to head the 
American arms in the Northwest. 

Looking to the perils which threatened the coun- 
try, Governor Harrison, in concert with Governor 
Edwards of Illinois, and Governor Scott of Ken- 
tucky, had for some time past been exerting himself 
indefatigably to prepare the people and the Govern- 
ment for the struggle. Soon after war was declared, 
he repaired to Frankfort, at the earnest request of 
Governor Scott, to confer in regard to the disposition 
to be made of the troops of Kentucky. He was re- 
ceived with most flattering testimonials of the respect 
and affection of the inhabitants. The first object was 
to succor Detroit, which it was immediately appre- 
hended the British would speedily attack with all the 
force at their disposal. In fact, the news quickly 
came, first of the surrender of Chicago and Macki- 
nac, and then that the British had summoned the 
northern tribes for the siege of Detroit. If this place 
fell, an immense frontier, including Western Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Mis- 
souri would be left exposed at the mercy of a re- 
morseless foe. This catastrophe there was but too 
much reason to dread. 

General Hull had already sent an express to hasten 
up reinforcements from Kentucky. At the same time, 
letters came from several of the principal officers, 
of the garrison, exposing their want of confidence in 
their commander, and the apprehension occasion- 
4 



38 

ed by his miserable arrangements and apparent imbe- 
cility and cowardice, and expressing the common i 
wish that Governor Harrison should accompany the 
reinforcements. In that wish the people of Kentucky 
warmly concurred. Governor Scott had levied a 
force of more than five thousand militia and volunteers, 
commanded by some of the ablest men and most ex- 
perienced officers i i the State, two thousand of which 
were ordered for immediate service, to maich to De- 
troit. Their feeling was universal that the command 
should be given to Harrison. To accomplish this 
object, as the powers held by him under the Federal 
Government were confined to the Territories, and 
though none but a citizen of Kentucky could hold 
a com mat. d in her militia, yet, yielding to the exigen- 
cies of the occasion, and fortified by the advice of 
Governor Shelby, Judge Todd, Mr Clay and others, 
Governor Scott gave to Harrison a brevet commission 
of Major General in the militia of Kentucky, and au- 
thorised him to take command of the detachment 
destined for Detroit. 

In the midst of the preparations which this respon- 
sible and most honorable trust imposed on Gen. Harri- 
son, intelligence of the disgraceful and cowardly sur- 
render of Detroit arrived, and Spread consternation far 
and wide through the country. This event only served 
to redouble the exertions and zeal of both officers and 
men. Universal disappointment ensued, when it be- 
came known, that, ignorant alike of the fall of Detroit 
and «<f the proceedings in Kentucky, Gen. Winches- 
ter of the regular army was appointed by the govern- 
ment to take the command. And though Gen. Harri- 
son received the appointment of Brigadier General in 
the army of the United State, he declined to accept or 
act under it, until he could learn whether his accept- 
ance would make him subordinate to Gen. Winches- 
ter. In this, he did but conform to the wishes and ex- 
pectations of those around him, who were reconciled 
to march under Winchester only by the expectation 



39 

that, when all the facts should be known to the War 
Department, Harrison would be confirmed in the com- 
mand. For by this time, says McAffee, " he had com- 
pletely secured the confidence of every soldier in the 
army. He was affable and courteous in bis manners, 
and indefatigable in his attention to every branch of 
business. His soldiers seemed to anticipate the wishes 
of their general ; it was only necessary to be known 
that he wished something done, and all were anxious 
to risk their lives in its accomplishment. His men 
would have fought better and suffered more with him, 
than with any other general in America." 

Nevertheless, though considering his command un- 
der existing circumstances as merely provisional, Gen- 
eral Harrison, learning that Fort Wayne was invested 
by a large body of Indians, would not allow any con- 
sideration pergonal to himself to impede the public 
service, and without waiting for orders from the gov- 
ernment, he hastened to the relief of that place by 
way of Dayton and Piqua. He reached that place on 
the 12th September. His troops were in fine spirits, 
and he confidently anticipated a successful issue to the 
expected encounter with the enemy ; but he found the 
besieging army had abandoned its position and fled at 
his approach. 

Previous to the arrival of Gen. Winchester, he con- 
tinued to employ himself in various measures to strike 
terror into the hostile Indians. Some detached inde- 
pendent operations of this class also occurred in the 
same autumn ; such as the gallant defence of Fort 
Harrison by Capt. (now General) Zachary Taylor, at- 
tacked by a body of Kickapoos and Winnebagoes ; the 
expedition of Gen. Hopkins of Kentucky against the 
Indians on the Wabash ; and that of Gov. Edwards 
and Col. Russell to the head of Peoria lake. 

On giving up the command, Gen. Harrison retired 
from the army to resume his duties as Governor of In- 
diana, having then entered the field only because there 
was no other officer to take the command, and cheer- 



40 

fully acquiescing afterwards in the decision of the gov- 
ernment to bestow it on Gen. Winchester. 

COMMANDER OF THE NORTHWESTERN ARMT. 

No sooner, however, did the President become ac- 
quainted with the actual state of affairs, and learn 
that General Harrison was the choice of the whole 
western people, and that he was already engaged in 
extensive preparations for active service, than the 
chief command in the Northwest was assigned to 
him. Orders to this effect reached him at Piqua on 
bis return, by which he was required, after providing 
for the protection of the Western frontiers to retake 
Detroit, and with a view to the conquest of Upper 
Canada, to penetrate that country as far as the forces 
under his command would in his judgment justify. 
The army placed under him, consisting of regular 
tioops, and militia and volunteers of Kentucky, Ohio, 
Virginia and Pennsylvania, amounted to ten thou- 
sand men. With the designation of these very 
general objects to be accomplished, broad authority 
was given him to command such means as might be 
practicable, to exercise his own discretion, and to act in 
all cases according to his own judgment. In a word, 
complete and discretionary power was conferred on 
him to conduct all the operations of war in the North- 
west, — subject, always, to the three specific objects 
prescribed by the Department, namely, the internal 
defence of the country, the recapture of Detroit, and 
the invasion of Canada. 

This extensive command, — more extensive than 
was ever intrusted before to any officer of the United 
States since the revolution, — extensive, not only as to 
the wide expanse of country it embraced, but also the 
nature of the powers conferred, was placed in the 
hands of General Harrison by President Madison, 
whose long and intimate official knowledge of the 
officer employed, gave him the best possible means 



41 

of judging as to that officer's trustworthiness and 
capability. Nor did the result disappoint the Presi- 
dent's expectations. General Harrison's command 
covered a vast frontier, stretching along the great 
Lakes, with harbors and rivers accessible to the ene- 
my, and with a large number of scattered posts and 
exposed settlements, which he was required to defend 
against a host of warlike Indians. His forces were 
either undisciplined recruits, or militia and volunteers, 
full of the ardor, it is true, of patriots and freemen, 
but enlisted for limited periods, destitute of the habits 
or experience of the soldier, and to be held in obedi- 
ence by personal influence, rather than force of au- 
thority. Such troops were unquestionably competent 
to the defensive purposes contemplated for them by 
the Government. But, in addition to this, General 
Harrison was to operate offensively ; he was to re- 
pair the disasters of Hull's misconduct, to retake De- 
troit, and carry the war into the enemy's country ; 
and, in doing this, he was to act against the experi- 
enced officers and well-disciplined troops of Britain. 
Besides which, the point was remote from the source 
of his supplies, while the intervening country was a 
trackless and swampy wilderness, almost impassable 
for heavy wagons, swarming with hostile savages', 
and where the troops, though ever so little encumber- 
ed with baggage, could advance but slowly, and with 
incessant labor ; and the difficulties thus caused were 
tenfold augmented by the fact, that many of the most 
indispensable munitions of war were yet wanting,— 
magazines and depots to be provided, — and a commis- 
sariat, covering so extensive and so impracticable a the- 
atre of operations, to be created almost out of nothing. 
That delays, and subordinate reverses, should have 
impeded the progress of General Harrison, amid all 
these difficulties, was in the inevitable course of things. 
No power short of one to work miracles could have 
sufficed to prevent this. The wonder is, that General 
Harrison succeeded at all. And yet, in the face of 



42 

the immense embarrassments and impediments which 
surrounded him, he, by persevering energy, firm- 
ness and courage, overcame them all, accomplished 
every one of the objects prescribed to him, and, with- 
in one short year from the time he commenced his un- 
dertaking, gloriously concluded it, by the final victory 
of the Thames, achieved in the very heart of Upper 
Canada. 

When General Harrison received his orders, the 
first consideration was, by what plan of operations 
were the prescribed objects of the government to be 
attained ? Smarting under the sense of the disgrace 
Hull brought on the country, and sanguine in the con- 
sciousness of their own courage, the men of the West 
had at first turned their thoughts to the idea of the re- 
capture of Detroit by a coup de main. Further re- 
flection satisfied them of the impracticability of effect- 
ing this, without the previous concentration of sup- 
plies, and the armament of particular points, to sup- 
port the advaning forces. If troops could be advanc- 
ed in sufficient numbers in the course of the autumn 
or winter, simultaneously with the collection of ra- 
tions and stores at secure posts, and the fortification 
of others to be held as points d'appui for the intended 
movements, then a blow could at once be struck at 
Maiden, so as to break up the power of the enemy, 
and the recapture of Detroit made certain. Mean- 
while, in these operations, pointing to the ulterior ob 
ject as the main one, the incidental one would like- 
wise be attained, of holding in check the British and 
their savage allies, and thus guarding the safety of the 
frontier States. 

In this view, General Harrison fixed upon the fol- 
lowing plan of operations. The point of concentra- 
tion, from which the principal movement on the ene- 
my was to be made, was the rapids of the Miami of 
the Lakes, with a military base extending from Upper 
Sandusky on the right, to Fort Defiance on the left. 
Genera! Winchester was to conduct the left division, 



43 

consisting of troops already assembled at Fort Defi- 
ance, and some Kentucky regiments at or near St. 
Mary's ; General Tupper commanded the centre divi- 
sion of the Ohio troops, assembled at Fort McArthur; 
and the right division, composed of Virginia and 
Pennsylvania troops, was reserved for the personal 
command of General Harrison himself. Each of these 
columns was to move by a separate line of operation, 
terminating at the rapids. " This," says Colonel 
Wood, an accomplished engineer, the competency of 
whose judgment is admitted on all hands, — " was an 
excellent plan ; for, by sending the corps by different 
routes, with the view of concentrating somewhere in 
the neighborhood of the enemy, the march of the ar- 
my would not only be expedited, but the frontier much 
more effectually protected." And to the execution of 
the plan, thus judiciously conceived, and fully approv- 
ed by the government, General Harrison proceeded to 
devote all his own energies, and the resources of men 
and means at his command. 

Before describing the events of the campaign, there 
are two subjects of personal detail, connected with 
those events, which require to be touched upon here. 

One is, the toils and hardships, to which General 
Harrison, in common with the troops under him, was 
exposed. For he choose to participate in all the pri- 
vations, as well as the dangers of the campaign. It 
is difficult to describe, — it is impossible for those who 
pass their lives in the ordinary civil or business pur- 
suits, to conceive, in all their force, — the sufferings of 
the soldier, marching through a wilderness country, 
exposed to all the vicissitudes of the weather, amid 
the rains of autumn and the snows of winter, with 
necessarily imperfect supplies of clothing, food, and 
equipage, and subject at the same time to all the re- 
quisitions of military duty and peril. Honor to the 
brave men who left their happy homes to do and dare 
all this, and who, with self-sacrificing patriotism, 
rushed to defend the fire-ides of their country and its 



44 

threatened honor, from the assaults of the foreign foe 
with his scarce more savage allies ! 

The other subject is, the deportment of General 
Harrison to the peculiar troops under his command, 
and the means by which he secured their obedience 
and their co-operation amid all the hardships of the 
service. These troops were chiefly citizen soldiers, 
freemen serving voluntarily in the ranks of patriot- 
ism, high-spirited and generous, the choice men of the 
States to which they belonged. Such men were not 
to be treated as the common soldiers of a regular ar- 
my. To secure their hearty service, nay, to have 
their obedience at all, the General under whom they 
served, must possess their confidence, their respect, 
their affection. Such was the relation between Gen- 
eral Harrison and his troops. His proved talents, his 
eminent public services, his energy of character, his 
judgment, commanded their respect; his considerate- 
ness, forbearance, good temper, and conciliatory 
manner, won their attachment. Their commander, it 
is true, exacted of them the severest service, as the 
necessities of the country required he should ; he was 
yet their companion in peril, their fellow-citizen, their 
friend. During the whole period of his command, he 
never permitted a degrading punishment to be inflict- 
ed on a militia soldier. If the fault committed were 
an individual one, he dealt with it by private admoni- 
tion: if masses of men were concerned, he attained 
his object by oral addresses or by general orders; and 
t hus his eloquent exhortations reclaimed them to their 
duty and their country's cause, whenever, amid the 
difficulties and dangers of the campaign, they were 
disposed to falter. 

An incident, which occurred on his arrival in Win- 
chester's camp, at Fort Defiance, illustrates this. 
Soon after he had retired to rest, he was awakened by 
Col. Allen and Major Hardin to be informed that Al- 
len's regiment was in open mutiny, determined to 
abandon the expedition and return home; and that all 



45 

their own attempts to bring their men back to their 
duty, were utterly in vain. General Harrison order- 
ed the alarm to beat the ensuing morning instead of a 
reveillie. This brought all the surprised troops to 
arms, and when the troops paraded at their posts, they 
saw, with new surprise, General Harrison appear 
among them. He began by lamenting the discontents 
which existed among men he so highly esteemed; but 
it was because of its dishonor to them; for Govern- 
ment would dispense with their services; and all those 
who were disheartened that they did not find in the 
woods the luxuries and comforts of home, had full 
liberty to return. But what would be their reception 
from the old and young, who had greeted them on 
their march to the scene of war, as their country's 
gallant defenders? To be seen returning before the 
expiration of their term of service, without having 
struck a blow ! If their fathers did not drive their 
degenerate sons back to recover their tarnished honor 
on the field of battle, would not their mothers and sis- 
ters hiss them from their presence ? But, if they were 
prepared thus to encounter the scorn and contempt of 
their friends at home, they could go, and the Govern- 
ment would look elsewhere for braver and better men 
to defend the country in its hour of need. This strain 
of indignant remonstrance, and of mingled regret and 
reproval, was irresistible; the generous men of Ken- 
tucky returned by acclamation to their duty; and no 
more faithful troops than they, served in that whole 
war. 

To resume the narrative of events, — the autumn of 
the year was passed in laborious preparation for ac- 
tive service ; in collecting troops, in building forts, in 
(Meeting depots, in cutting roads, in opening resources 
for supplies, and in organizing the various depart- 
ments of the army. So long as hope was tenable, 
General Harrison persevered in the hope to be able to 
strike the meditated blow in the current season; but as 
winter approached, the difficulty of getting forward 



46 

supplies increased; and he was reluctantly compelled 
to postpone his final advance until he should be able to 
take advantage of the ice and snow for transportation 
and the passage of rivers. Before this time came, 
however, the unfortunate movement of General Win- 
chester, on the river Raisin, led to a new series-of im- 
portant but unexpected incidents. 

According to the plan and the general instructions 
for the campaign, General Harrison expected that on 
his arrival at Upper Sandusky, in December, he should 
be advised of the advance of Winchester to the Ra- 
pids. But Winchester did not march from the mouth 
of the Glaise until the 30th of December; and on the 
10th of January reached the Rapids, where he estab- 
lished and fortified his camp in a good position. In a 
few days, messengers came to camp from Frenchtown 
on the river Raisin, earnestly entreating Winchester 
to send a force to protect them against an expected 
attack of Indians. Winchester consented : and sent 
Colonel Lewis and Colonel Allen with two detach- 
ments of upwards of six hundred men to Frenchtown. 
They found the enemy already there, prepared to re- 
ceive them ; and immediately charged the combined 
British and Indians, and gained a decisive and most 
brilliant victory. If they had then retired, it would 
have been well; but flushed with triumph, they re- 
solved to maintain the position ; and Winchester pro- 
ceeded to Frenchtown to support them. If, then, he 
had suitable adopted precautions, the error of making 
this detached movement, without advice of the Com- 
mander-in-chief, of means of aid from him, might 
have passed off well ; but Winchester, for the first 
time during the whole campaign, neglected to fortify 
his position, or to guard against the approach of 
troops from the post of Maiden, where he knew the 
enemy were in great strength. The consequences to 
his command were most disastrous. They were sur- 
prised on the morning of the 22d, by a body of Bri- 
tish and Indians under Colonel Proctor, who earned 



47 

an eternity of infamy, — for himself and for the coun- 
try which rewarded his services on this occasion with 
honor, — by leaving the wounded prisoners to be mur- 
dered by the Indians. Winchester himself and some 
few others who were able to march, were conducted 
to Maiden ; but a large portion of the Americans were 
either tomahawked on the spot, or murdered in cold 
blood afterwards; and Frenchtown was committed to 
the flames. It is idle and totally impossible to relieve 
the British arms from the ignominy and infamy of the 
transaction; for much of the butchery happened un- 
der the very eyes of Proctor; and his whole conduct 
in the affair was alike brutal and mean. He chose to 
feed the Indians with blood in order to whet their ap- 
petite for it, and thus make them the better auxiliaries 
of Britain. But for these atrocities, he was himself 
destined, ere long, to receive a part of the detestation 
he merited, at the hands of Harrison himself. 

How different has been the conduct of the Ameri- 
cans ! At near the same time, Colonel Campbell had 
conducted successfully an expedition against the In- 
dians on the Mississinneway. In the order issued 
on the return of the expedition, General Harrison- 
says: 

" It with the sincerest pleasure that the General has 
heard, that the most punctual obedience was paid to 
his orders, in not only saving all the women and chil- 
dren, but in sparing all the warriors who ceased to re- 
sist; and that even when vigorously attacked by the 
enemy, the claims of mercy prevailed over every sense 
of their own danger, and this heroic band respected 
the lives of their prisoners. Let an account of mur- 
dered innocence be opened in the records of heaven, 
againt our enemies alone. The American soldier 
will follow the example of his Government ; and the 
sword of the one will not be raised against the fallen 
and helpless, nor the gold of the other be paid for the 
scalps of a massacred enemy." 



48 

How nobly do such conduct and such sentiments 
contrast with the miscreant acts of Proctor! 

If the massacre of the river Raisin filled the West 
with sorrow, it also awakened there a sense of indig 
nation and outrage, of which the effects were after- 
wards seen. Its immediate influence was prejudicial 
to the objects of the campaign. Winchester's own 
movement had been not only without the knowledge 
or consent of Harrison, but contrary to his views 
and plans for the conduct of the campaign. When 
he heard that the movement had been made, he and 
those about him, felt that it was to the last degree im- 
prudent, and looked for nothing less from it than the 
certain and inevitable destruction of the left wing of 
the army, which had thus thrown itself into the very 
jaws of the enemy, and away from the possibility of 
succor. On the evening of the 16th, being at Upper 
Sandusky, he received from Colonel Perkins, at Low- 
er Sandusky, intelligence for the first time, that Win- 
chester, having arrived at the Rapids, meditated some 
unknown movement against the enemy. Alarmed at 
this, and ignorant what it implied, General Harrison 
gave orders for the advance of troops and artillery, 
and hastened to Lower Sandusky himself. Here he 
was met by information from the Rapids of the march 
of Colonel Lewis to Frenchtown. Fresh troops were 
immediately put in motion by forced marches for the 
Rapids; to which point he himself pushed with the 
utmost speed. All the disposable troops at the Rapids 
and others, as they came in, were ordered on with 
anxious expedition; but they were met on the road by 
the fugitives from the field of battle, and nothing re- 
mained but to protect them and the houseless people 
of Frenchtown. In short, all possible efforts were 
made to protect Winchester from the apprehended 
consequences of his own ill-advised acts. 

After this, in the expectation of an attack on the 
position at the Rapids, the army fell back to the 
Portage, to admit of an expected reinforcement under 



49 

General Leftwich ; on the arrival of which, the po- 
sition at the Rapids on the east bank of the Miami, 
was resumed, and strongly fortified as the winter- 
quarters of the army; it was called Camp Meigs, in 
honor of the Governor of Ohio. 

This position being attacked by the British, became 
the scene of a brilliant triumph to the arms of the 
United States. So soon as it became known that the 
attack was contemplated, General Harrison, having 
made arrangements for strong reinforcements to fol- 
low him, repaired to Camp Meigs to conduct the de- 
fence of it in person. The enemy made his appear- 
ance on the 26th April; consisting of a numerous 
force, British and Indians, commanded by General 
Proctor; who, having ascended on the north side of the 
Miami in boats, landed at old Fort Miami, and pro- 
ceeded to construct there powerful batteries, directly 
opposite the American camp. Meanwhile, our troops 
had thrown up a breastwork of earth, twelve feet in 
height, traversing the camp in rear of the tents, so 
that when the batteries of the enemy were completed 
and mounted, and his fire opened, the tents of the 
Americans beim; struck and removed to the rear of 
the traverse, were completely sheltered and protected. 
A severe fire was now kept up on both sides until the 
4th of May, when intelligence reached the camp of 
the approach of the expected reinforcements, com- 
posed of a brigade of Kentucky militia under General 
Green Clay. 

General Harrison immediately determined to make 
a bold effort, by a sortie from the camp, combined 
with an attack of the enemy's lines by General Clay, 
to raise the seige. Orders accordingly were despatch- 
ed to General Clay, requiring him that, instead of 
forming an immediate junction with the garrison, he 
should detach eight hundred of his men on the oppo- 
site side of the river, where two of the British batte- 
ries were, turn and take the batteries, spike the cannon, 
and destroy the gun-carriages, and thenregain the 
5 



50 

boats as speedily as possible, while the remainder of 
the brigade should land and fight their way into the 
camp, so as to favor a sortie to be made by the garri- 
son against the thrid and only remaining British bat- 
tery. This plan was ably conceived, and promised 
the best results. General Clay, after detaching Colo- 
nel Dudley to land on the west side of the Miami, 
fought his way safely into the camp. A part of the 
garrison also, under Colonel (now General) Miller, 
consisting in part of regular troops and the residue 
militia and Kentucky volunteers, gallantly assaulted 
and carried the battery on the eastern bank, made a 
number of prisoners, and drove the British and Indi- 
ans from their lines. 

Meanwhile, Dudley had landed his men, and charged 
and carried the two batterries without the loss of a 
man. Unhappily these gallant citizens were not suf- 
ficiently aware of their exposed situation, and of the 
necessity of retreating to their boats, in punctual ob- 
servance of their orders, so soon as they should have 
destroyed the enemy's artillery. Instead of this, they 
were, without due consideration, drawn into a fight 
with some straggling Indians, and so detained until 
Proctor had time to interpose a strong force between 
them and the means of retreat. The result was the 
destruction rather than defeat of the detachment, for 
three fourths of it were made captives or slain. The 
British arms were again dishonored by giving up the 
prisoners to be massacred by the Indians. Dudley 
and many of his companions were tomahawked at 
once. Others of the prisoners were put into Fort 
Miami, for the Indians to stand on the ramparts and 
fire into the disarmed crowd. Those Indians, who 
chose, selected their victims, led them to the gateway, 
and there, under the eye of General Proctor and in 
thepresence of the whole British army> murdered and 
scalped them. Not until Tecumthe came up from 
the batteries did the slaughter cease. " For shame ! 
it is a disgrace to kill defenceless prisoners !" — he ex- 



51 

claimed, thus displaying more of humanity than Proc- 
tor himself. 

Unfortunate as this incident was, the events of the 
day satisfied Proctor that he could not continue the 
siege with any hope of success. He resolved to re- 
treat, to cover which, he sent in a flag of truce, requir- 
ing the immediate surrender of the American post and 
army, as " the only means left for saving the latter from 
the tomahawks and scalping knives of the savages." 
Considering this base and insolent message unworthy 
of any serious notice, General Harrison simply admon- 
ished Proctor not to repeat it. With which manly 
and decided answer Proctor being perforce content, 
hastily broke up his camp, and retreated in disgrace 
and confusion towards Maiden. 

In May following, however, Proctor, thinking to 
surprise Fort Meigs, made a second attack upon it, 
with a large force of British regulars and Canadians, 
and several thousand Indians under Tecumthe, but 
was again obliged to retreat in disgrace. After which, 
Proctor landed a part of his force at Lower Sandusky, 
with a view to reduce Fort Stephenson. This was a 
mere out-post of little importance ; and General Har- 
rison, acting with the unanimous advice of his council 
of war, had sent orders to Major Croghan, who com- 
manded the garrison, to evacuate the fort, and make 
good his retreat to head-quarters, provided the enemy 
should approach the place with artillery, and a retreat 
be practicable. But the first step taken by Proctor 
was to isolate the fort by a cordon of Indians, thus 
leaving to Major Croghan no choice but between re- 
sistance and submission. He then demanded of Cro- 
ghan to surrender, adding his customary declaration, 
that othewise he could not protect the garrison from 
massacre by the Indians in case the fort should be 
taken. To this attrocious threat, as unjustifiable 
by any of the usages of war, as it was cowardly and 
discourteous, Croghan calmly replied, that " when the 
fort should be taken there would be none left to mas- 



52 

sacre, as it would not be given up while a man was 
able to fight." With his small garrison this brave 
young officer gallantly maintained the post, and re- 
pulsed the assaults of Proctor. Much idle censure 
has been cast upon General Harrison because of this 
affair. To which it is sufficient here to say that, 
while his orders were such as the circumstances justi- 
fied and required, and were fully approved and sanc- 
tioned by the most competent judges on the spot, Cro- 
ghan himself bearing witness to the penetration and 
able generalship of his measures, so the defence itself 
so successfully made in compliance with the very con- 
tingency contemplated in the orders, was in the highest 
degree honorable to the brave garrison and its young 
commander. 

BATTLE OF THE THAMES. 

The time was now at hand when General Harrison 
and his army were to reach the full completion of all 
the contemplated objects of the expediton. 

Among the earliest recommendations of General 
Harrison to the Government the year before, and im- 
mediately after he commenced operations, had been 
that of constructing and equipping a naval armament 
on the Lakes. In one letter he says: "Admitting 
that Maiden and Detroit are both taken, Mackinaw 
and St. Joseph will both remain in the hands of the 
enemy until we can create a force capable of contend- 
ing with the vessels which the British have in Lake 
Michigan, &c." And again, in another letter : 
" Should an offensive operation be suspended until 
spring, it is my decided opinion that the cheapest and 
most effectual plan will be to obtain command of Lake 
Erie. This being once effected, every difficulty will 
be removed. An army of four thousand men, landed 
on the north side of the Lake, below Maiden, will re- 
duce that place, retake Detroit, and with the aid of the 
fleet, proceed down the Lake to co-operate with the 



53 

army from Niagara." These sagacious instructions 
being repeatedly and strenuously urged by him, and 
reinforced also from other quarters, were adopted and 
acted upon by the Government. Commodore Perry 
was commissioned to build, equip, and command the 
contemplated fleet; and, on the 10th of September, 
with an inferior force, he met the enemy, and gained 
the brilliant victory of Lake Erie. 

Meanwhile, Colonel Richard M. Johnson, then a 
member of Congress from Kentucky, had devised the 
organization of two regiments of mounted militia? 
which he was authorized by the Government to raise, 
as well lor service against the Indians as to co-operate 
with Harrison. Colonel Johnson crossed the country 
of Lower Sandusky, where he received orders from 
the War Department to proceed to Kaskaskia to oper- 
ate in that quarter ; but 3 by the inference of Harrison, 
and at the urgent request of Colonel Johnson, — who 
said for himself and his men that the first object of 
their hearts was to accompany Harrison to Detroit and 
Canada, and to partake in the danger and honor of 
that expedition, under an officer in whom they had 
confidence, and who had approved himself " to be 
wise, prudent, and brave," — the orders of the Depart- 
ment were countermanded, and Colonel Johnson at- 
tained his wish. 

General Harrison now prepared to strike the great 
blow. Aided by the energetic efforts of Governor 
Meigs, of Ohio, and Governor Shelby, of Kentucky, 
he had ready on the southern shore of Lake Erie, by 
the middle of September, a competent force destined 
for the immediate invasion of Canada. Between the 
16th and the 24th of September the artillery, military 
stores, provisions, and troops, were gradually embark- 
ed, and on the 27th the whole army "proceeded to the 
Canada shore. " Remember the river Raisin," said 
General Harrison, in his address to the troops, " but 
remember it only whilst victory is suspended. The 
revenge of a soldier cannot be gratified on a fallen en- 

5* 



54 

emy." The army landed in high spirits; but the en- 
emy had abandoned his strong hold and retreated to 
Sandwich, — after dismantling Maiden, burning the 
barracks and navy yard, and stripping th? adjacent 
country of horses and cattle. General Harrison en- 
camped that night on the ruins of Maiden. 

No time was lost in resuming the pursuit of Proc- 
tor. Colonel Johnson's mounted regiment came up 
and supplied the cavalry wanting for the pursuit. 
Two days only were occupied in re-establishing the 
civil government of Michigan, and assigning to it a de- 
fensive corps, in organizing a portion of the army for 
rapid movement, and in giving to the whole of it an 
order of march and battle. It was not until the 5th of 
October that Proctor was overtaken, at a place ever 
memorable as the battle ground of one of the most 
honorable and decisive actions fought during the war. 
On that day the enemy was discovered in a position 
skilfully chosen, in relation as well to local circum- 
stances as to the character of his troops. A narrow 
strip of dry land, flanked by the river Thames on the 
left and by a swamp on the right, was occupied by his 
regular infantry and artillery, while on the right flank 
lay Tecumthe and his followers, on the eastern margin 
of the swamp. But, notwithstanding the judicious 
choice of the ground, Proctor had committed the error 
of forming his infantry in open order. Availing him- 
self of this fact, and aware that troops so disposed 
could not resist a charge of mounted men, he directed 
Colonel Johnson to dash through the enemy's line in 
column. The movement was made with brilliant 
success. The mounted men charged with promp- 
titude and vigor, broke through the ■ line of the 
enemy, formed in the rear, and assailed the broken 
line with a success seldom equalled, for nearly the 
whole of the British regular force were either killed, 
wounded, or taken. On the left, the Indians rushed 
on the mounted men there, and fiercely contested the 
ground for a short time, until Tecumthe fell, as is sup- 



55 

posed by the hand Colonel Johnson. Proctor, who 
had saved himself and a part of his suite by a base de- 
sertion of his troops, in keeping with his character, 
was now strenuously but unsuccessfully pursued. But 
the defeat of the enemy was now complete. All his 
baggage and military stores, together with his official 
papers, fell into Harrison's hands. Several field pieces 
also, which had been taken from the British in the rev- 
olutionary war at Saratoga and Yorktown, but which 
Hull had shamefully surrendered at Detroit, were 
again captured, and were honorable trophies of vic- 
tory. 

In this battle, Governor Shelby, of Kentucky, com- 
manded the troops of his State, and Colonel (Gener- 
al) Cass and Commodore Perrv acted as volunteer 
aids to General Harrison. 

" Thus fortunately terminated an expedition," says 
General Armstrong, "the results of which were of 
high importance to the United States ', a naval ascen- 
dency gained on Lakes Erie and Superior ; Maiden 
destroyed; Detroit recovered ; Proctor defeated ; the 
alliance between Great Britain and the savages dis- 
solved, and peace and industry restored to our widely 
extended Western frontier." In a word, Harrison 
had gloriously accomplished, by his own abilities and 
the co-operation of the gallant people of the West, 
all that he undertook in assuming the command of the 
American forces in the Northwest. 

The news of this great victory was received 
throughout the United States with universal rejoic- 
ings and gratulations. In his Message to Congress 
of the 7th December, 1813, Mr Madison spoke of the 
result as "signally honorable to Major General Har- 
rison, by whose military talents it was prepared." 
" The victory of Harrison," said Mr Cheeves on the 
floor of Congress, " was such as would have secured 
to a Roman General, in the best days of the republic, 
the honors of a triumph. He put an end to the war 
in the uppermost Canada." " The blessings," said 



56 

Governor Snyder, of Pennsylvania, in his message to 
the Legislature of that State, " of thousands of wo- 
men and children, rescued from the scalping-knife of 
the ruthless savage of the wilderness, and from the 
still more savage Proctor, rest on Harrison and his 
gallant army." It was well said by a prominent Vir- 
ginia press, of Harrison's despatch after the battle, 
that in his letter he had done justice to every one but 
himself; and that the world must therefore do justice 
to the man, who was too modest to do justice to him- 
self. And referring to other without cotemporaueous 
testimonies of public gratitnde and respect, it will be 
sufficient to add the following resolution, passed hy 
both branches of Congress, and approved 4th of 
April, 1818: 

" Resolved by the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives of the United States of America in Congress as- 
sembled, That the thanks of Congress be, and they 
are hereby presented to Major General William 
Henry Harrison and Isaac Shelby, late Governor of 
Kentucky, and through them to the officers and men 
under their command, for their gallantry and good 
conduct in defeating the combined British and Indian 
forces under Major General Proctor on the Thames, 
in Upper Canada, on the 5th day of October, 1813, 
capturing the British army, with their baggage, camp 
equippage, and artillery; and that the President of 
the United States be requested to cause two Gold 
Medals to be struck, emblematical of this triumph, 
and presented to General Harrison, and Isaac Shelby, 
late Governor of Kentucky," 

Having thus entirely defeated the enemy in Upper 
Canada, Harrison advanced with a part of his army 
to the Niagara frontier, and thence to Sackett's Har- 
bor, where he left the troops and proceeded to the seat 
of Government, and then to Ohio, where his immedi- 
ate duties required his presence. In the plan of the 
ensuing campaign General Armstrong, the Secretary 
of War, saw fit to assign to General Harrison the com- 



57 

mend of a now comparatively unimportant district, 
while active service against Canada was entrusted to 
others. That an officer in the prime of life, bred to 
combat under Wayne, who had signalized his name 
in the memorable triumph of Tippecanoe, won the 
brilliant victory of the Thames, and by his courage 
and skill given peace to the Northwest, reconquered 
Michigan, and gained possession of a large part of 
Upper Canada — that such an officer should not be 
continued in active service, naturally occasioned sur- 
prise. But though the causes of it were veiled from 
the public eye, yet the agency and motives became vis- 
ible, when the Secretary of War, soon afterwards, not 
only designated a subordinate officer within General 
Harrison's district for a particular duty, but also trans- 
mitted directly to that officer orders to take troops 
from the district without consulting its commander. 
On receiving notice of this, General Harrison, justly 
indignant, addressed to the Department a letter of re- 
signation, with a notification to the President. Hear- 
ing of this, Governor Shelby wrote a remonstrance to 
the President, expressing the highest opinion of Harri- 
son's military talents and capacity to command, derived 
from actually serving under him, and declaring the 
belief that in the arduous duties he performed, no offi- 
cer had ever displayed more energy or exhibited great- 
er capability. But the Secretary of War hastily as- 
sumed the right, Mr Madison being absent in Virginia, 
to accept General Harrison's resignation, without 
which, it is believed, the President would have deci- 
ded otherwise ; and thus, in the subsequent campaigns, 
the country was deprived of the abilities of him " who," 
in the words of Colonel Johnson," during the late war 
was longer in active service than any other general 
officer, was perhaps oftener in action than any of 
them, and never sustained a defeat." For General 
Harrison, with the disinterestedness and love of honor 
which has always distinguished him, would not contin- 
ue to enjoy the high rank he held in the army? and the 



58 

emoluments it conferred, without he could be render- 
ing at the same time an equivalent service to the Re- 
public. 

INDIAN COMMISSIONER. 

But General Harrison did not the Jess continue to 
receive new marks of the confidence of Mr Madison. 

In the summer of 1814, he was appointed, in con- 
junction with Governor Shelby and General Cass, to 
treat with the Indians in the Northwest, at Greenville, 
the old head quarters of General Wayne. 

In 1815, after the peace of Ghent, and in the execu- 
tion of the provisions therein for the pacification of the 
Indians, General Harrison was placed at the head of 
the commission for treating with the important tribes 
of the Wyandotts, Shawnees, Ottawas, Winnebagoes, 
Chippewas, Delawares, Senecas, Pottawatamies, and 
Miamis, at Spring Wells. 

MEMBER OF CONGRESS AND OF THE OHIO LEGISLA- 
TURE. 

Hitherto, we have followed General Harrison 
through a long series of public duties and services, 
both civil and military, for a period of twenty-five 
years of active life ; in fifteen <#f which we have seen 
him employed in the highest and most arduous public 
trusts, whether as the political head or the military 
commander, in the great region of the West, which 
has been the scene of his toils and his triumphs. 
Pre-eminent as he was in the field when his country 
called him there, yet in the character of a civil ruler, 
as a negotiator, as a chief magistrate, — which for the 
greater part of the time he was, — he had shown him- 
self equally pre-eminent. For a short period only of 
his early life he had appeared before the nation as a 
member of a legislative body ; but then with distin- 
guished capacity for public usefulness. In 1816, he 



59 

became again a member of Congress, being elected a 
Representative from the State of Ohio, and continu- 
ing for three years, after which he became a member 
of the Senate of that State ; and in 1824, he was 
elected a Senator in Congress from that State. Gen- 
eral Harrison was amply qualified for the legislative 
duties he was thus called to perform, not merely by 
the possession of a high order of intellect, a cultivated 
mind, long and intimate familiarity with affairs, and 
great political and general acquirements, but also as 
an animated and ready speaker, fluent in language, 
plain, but not ungraceful in manner, eminently happy 
ill extemporaneous address, and endowed with apt 
and ready skill in bringing the resources of his mind 
to bear upon any given subject: — all which traits 
characterised his cursory debates as well as more 
formal speeches in Congress. 

It would far exceed the necessary limits of these 
outlines, to enter minutely into the review of General 
Harrison's acts and opinions during the period of this 
his service in Congress. These alone, with the offi- 
cial papers which proceeded from his pen, whilst at 
the head of affairs in the Northwest, would constitute 
a volome. 

Of the subjects, however, which received particu- 
lar attention from him, some deserve to be mention- 
ed, for their intrinsic importance, and the value of 
his efforts in regard to them. Such are the organiza- 
tion of the militia ; the introduction of a more equal 
system of military education than now exists ; the 
recognition of the independence of the Spanish 
American republics; the improvement of the moral 
condition of the army by augmenting the inducements 
to respectability on the part of the non-commissioned 
officers and soldiers ; the introduction of uniformity 
as to military* pensions ; and abovs all, his strenuous 
exertions in behalf of the claims of the surviving of- 
ficers and soldiers of the Revolution. 



60 



MINISTER TO COLOMBIA. 



In 1828, General Harrison was appointed, by Mr 
Adams, Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republic of 
Colombia. He arrived in the midst of that unhappy 
period, when Bolivar, forgetful of that example of 
Washington, which it had been his pride in early life 
to follow, was engaged in those efforts to change the 
constitution of his country, the failure of which, and 
the chagrin they brought upon him, consigned him to 
a premature grave, the broken-hearted victim of bit- 
ter disappointment and unavailing regrets. An elabo- 
rate letter of General Harrison's to Bolivar, in refer- 
ence to these matters, is justly admired for the noble 
and just sentiments of republican liberty and of pure 
patriotism, which it is replete with. General Harri- 
son did not remain long in Colombia, however •, the 
change of administration which ensued in the United 
States, producing his recall. 



CONCLUSION. 



Such, without enlarging to refer to other trusts of 
less general importance at different periods confided 
to General Harrison, have been the great public em- 
ployments, which, in the course of his diversified and 
eventful life, he has been called to fill, with honor to 
himself and to the Union. p . . 

The traits of character, which distinguished him 
in those employments, have been described briefly, as 
they came successively in review. Some of these 
traits, of a personal nature, deserve to be more dis- 
tinctly spoken of by themselves. 

Disinterestedness and integrity in pecuniary mat- 
ters have marked all his aetions. 

As Governor of Indiana and as Superintendent ot 
Indian Affairs, large sums of money passed through 
his hands to be disbursed at his discretion, and with 
few of the checks now provided in reference to such 



61 

things. He gave no security^ and the Government 
had no guaranty for the faithful application of the 
funds entrusted to him, but his prudence and honesty. 
But he was conscientiously true to his duty ; neither 
accumulating wealth by speculation upon the public 
money or lands, nor becoming a debtor of the Gov- 
ernment. 

During the war, as commander-in-chief in the 
Northwest, he had liberty to draw on the Govern- 
ment to an unlimited amount, and was daily passing 
large sums of public money through his hands, but 
not a cent did he ever divert to his own use ; and at 
the close of his military services, there was no charge 
against him on the books of the Treasury, except for 
moneys faithfully and truly accounted for by him, 
and allowed as such. 

Meanwhile, his situation in life, more especially 
when Commander-in-chief, subjected him to many 
and great personal charges ; not only those directly 
incidental to his military duties, in travelling and 
otherwise ; but, charges, also, of a different kind, 
imposed by the peculiar description of the forces he 
led, and the consequent necessity he was under at times 
of keeping free quarters for the reception of his fellow 
citizens, whom his duty to the Government, and the 
dependence of the country upon volunteer troops, 
made it important he should conciliate. Add to 
which, that at his own expense, he continually sup- 
plied clothing and other needful comforts for his sick 
and wounded soldiers. Hence, though he lived as 
frugally and fared as hardly in the field as any soldier 
in the ranks of his army, yet his expenses at that pe- 
riod exceeded his pay, and the balance came from his 
private property. 

Since the war, Gen. Harrison has been the princi- 
ple representative of the military class of our citizens 
in the region in which he lived; and the old soldier, 
the veteran, who had served under Wayne, St Clair, 
and others, and still more, they who had served under 



62 

himself, came to him to present their claims for lands 
and pensions, and regarded him in the light of a pro- 
tector and a friend. Hospitable hy nature and habit, 
the old soldier always found a welcome at his fireside. 
Not only were his expenses increased, but much of his 
time also employed, in the duties of charity or friend- 
ship, to these his brave companions in arms. 

Nor did heat any time seek to avail himself of those 
means, which came in his way, to add to the regular 
appointments of the stations he held. While governor 
of Indiana and Indian Superintendant, he refused to 
accept any of the perquisites, which before his time 
had been customarily paid; and for his services as 
commander of the expedition to Tippecanoe he never 
received or asked compensation. 

Though having a numerous family, — and with offi- 
cial patronage long at his command, — and high claims 
in his own right and otherwise, to such favors — he has 
educated his children at his own expense, and waived 
opportnnities of providing for them in the public ser- 
vice, that he might give his influence to others. 

Thus disinterested in his public relations, (and not 
less so, indeed, in his private,) he has carried with 
him into retirement no spoils of office-, continuing to 
possess only the competency which belongs to inde- 
pendence, and that richest of all possessions, the en- 
viable reputation of an upright life. 

Whether in civil office or military command, Gen. 
Harrison was always just, moderate and conciliatory, 
though firm; and whether in public or private life, 
generous and considerate in his disposition, cheerful 
and affable in his intercourse with all; and though 
warm in his affections, yet never violent nor vindic- 
tive in his enmities. By this rare union of ability, 
courtesy, and moderation, it was that he swayed those 
about him. He himself, on being asked how he could 
control the militia he led to victory, disclosed the se- 
cret of his influence. " By treating them," he said, 
" with affection and kindness, by always recollecting 



63 

that they were my fellow-citizens, whose feelings I 
was bound to respect, and by sharing on every occa- 
sion the hardships they were obliged to undergo." 

His published writings, which are numerous, are 
distinguished by clearness and facility of composition, 
and indicate beyond dispute, that he possesses great 
cultivation of mind, as well as a great natural intel- 
lect. 

It is not the purpose of these Outlines to speak with 
particularity of the political opinions of Gen. Harri- 
son. These are best learnt by inspection of his wri- 
tings, his speeches, his official or public correspond- 
ence, and by observation of his life and actions. One 
fact, however, in this relation, it is material to bear 
in mind. Though honored with the confidence as 
well of the Washington and Adams as of the Jeffer- 
son and Madison administrations, and though heartily 
attached to the Republican principles of the latter, 
and one of the electors of Mr Monroe, yet his public 
service has been rendered to his country rather than 
to a party, and he stands free and untrammelled, with 
claims to the confidence of his fellow-citizens founded 
not on narrow party or sectional peculiarities, but on 
the broad basis of tried patriotism and capacity, un- 
blemished integrity, and his unquestionable devotion 
to the great public interests of the whole Union. And 
it needs only to add, therefore, that since his return 
from Colombia, he has lived in comparative retire- 
ment, upon his farm at North Bend, on the Ohio, a 
short way below Cincinnati, in the enjoyment of the 
unimpaired vigor of body and mind, which his active 
and temperate habits of life have secured to him, and 
in the conscientious discharge of all the relative du- 
ties of the just man and the sincere Christian. 



JUDGE BURNET'S SPEECH. 



We subjoin a Speech delivered by the venerable Judge Bur- 
net, of Ohio, in the Harrisburgh Contention, on occasion of 
Harrison's nomination. This gentleman has known General 
Harrison since his first early entrance upon public life, and the 
purity of his character, and the soundness of his judgment 
give great weight to his testimony. 

Ma President — Laboring under the influence of a severe 
cold, it will not be apprehended that I shall detain the Conven- 
tion by a long address. It is no doubt expected, sir, that the 
delegation of Ohio will say something on this occasion in com- 
mendation of their favorite son, on whom this Convention has 
just bestowed one among the highest honors to which the am- 
bition of man can aspire — a unanimous nomination for the first 
office in the gift of a free and powerful nation. I hope, sir, I 
shall not be charged with vanity when I say that I have been 
his intimate companion and friend for more than forty years. 
The free and continual intercourse that has existed between us 
for so long a period must necessarily enable me to speak with 
some confidence as to his character, acquirements, and course of 
life. 

He is a native of the " Old Dominion," and is an honor to 
the State which gave him birth. He is a son of Gov. Harrison 
of Virginia, who was a patriot of the Revolution; and a signer 
of the Declaration oflndependence proclaimed by the Continen- 
tal Congress in 1776 ; by which solemn act he pledged " his life, 
his ibrtune, and his sacred honer" to maintain that declaration, 
and he nobly re-Wmed his pledge. His son, of whom I now 
speak, inherited from his Maker an ardent, active, penetrating 
mind — far very far, above mediocrity; that mind has been im- 
proved by a classical education ; under the best instructors of 
that uay ; it has been stored with valuable aud useful know- 
ledge, literary, scientific, and historical. You can scarcely 
name an important subject on which he has not read and reflected 
and on which he cannot write and converse with facility and clear- 
ness. Lie is a good belies lettres scholar ; a ready, correct, and 



66 

strong writer, aud must be ranked, wherever he is known, in the 
class of men who are moU distinguished for improved and culti- 
vated intellect. In the fiber qualities of the heart no man can justly 
claim a preference ; to borrow the strong expressive lan- 
guage of my friend Gov. Metcalf, — " Harrison has an expanded 
heart, and it is always in Vie right place." Though brave as 
Napoleon, he has much of the milk of human kindness. Bene- 
volence, ond a desire to better the condition of the whole human 
family, predominate in his soul, and are constantly forcing 
themselves into action. In dress, he is plain and unostenta- 
tious ; in manners, affable and unassuming. When seen en- 
gaged on his farm, which is his daily employment, and 
necessarily followed to ohtain his daily bread, you cannot 
distinguish him by the appearance of his dress, from any 
of his brother farmers who are laboring in his vicinity. His 
house is open to all whether high or low, rich or poor. It 
is not exaggeration when 1 say — believe me, sii, it is not po- 
etry or fiction when I say, if he "had but one dollar he would not, 
because he could not, refuse to divide it with a friend in dis- 
tress. 

In politics he has always been a democratic republican, of the 
school of Washington, Jefferson and Madison ; he detests the 
agrarian, infidel principles which are gaining power and influ- 
ence at the present day, and resists the doctrine that the spoils 
belong- to the victors, and that an executive or ministerial officer 
of Government may assume the responsibility of construing the 
Constitution and laws of the country for se'lfish or party pur- 
poses. 

These statements, sir, are not surmises, nor are they taken 
on trust; they are gathered from his long life of civil and mili- 
tary service, and have been seen by all who have observed him, 
either at the head of the army, in the gubernatorial chair, in the 
halls of legislation, or in a diplomatic station. 

In 1791, this distinguished son of the venerable signer of the 
Declaration of Independence was engaged in the study of medi- 
cine under the care of Dr Rush of Philadelphia. Hearing of 
the murders committed by the Indians ou the northwestern 
frontier, he resolved to go to their relief. At his request his 
guardian, Robert Morris, of revolutionary memory, obtained for 
him from President Washington an ensigncy in the army of 
the United States. With this parchment in his pocket he has- 
tened to Cincinnati, but did not reach it till St Clair had march- 
ed into the Indian country ; by which providential event he was 
not on the bloody field where so many of his fellow officers and 
soldiers found a premature grave. The first tour of military 
duty he performed was in the succeeding winter, when he 
marched through the snow on foot at the head of his detach- 
ment, with his knapsack upon his back, to the fatal battle field, 
to inter the bones of the slain. This was his first military ser- 
vice. We find him afterwards in 1794, an aid-de-camp of the 



67 



gallant Wayne, distinguishing himself at the rapids of the Mau- 
mee, where for his bravery and good conduct he received the 
thanks of the commander-in-chief, communicated to the army 
in general orders. In 1795, he was engaged in making the 
treaty of Greenville, under the superintendenre of Gen. Wayne, 
which terminated the Indian war. He was soon after appoint- 
ed commandant of Fort Washington, and the management of 
the public property chiefly collected at that post. 

Early in 1793, the object being accomplished which prompted 
him to join the army, he resigned his commission and removed 
to his farm. The next military enterprise in which we find him 
engaged was the expedition to Tippecanoe. The treaty which 
he had then recently made with the Indian tribes had been vio- 
lated. Tecumthe, admitted by all to be the most intrepid war- 
rior and talented chief of the age, had prevailed on the tribes 
who were parties to that treaty to refuse its execution ; and for 
the purpose of ensuring the success of his project, was attempt- 
ing to form a union among all tribes from ihe lakes to the Gulf 
of Mexico. He had visited the northern tribes, and had se- 
cured their co-operation and was negotiating with those of 
the south for the same purpose. Harrison who was aware of 
his plan, and that he was actually engaged in the successful ex- 
ecution of it, was not idle. He communicated the fact to Mr 
Madison, stating what would be the consequence of permitting 
it to be completed. The President promptly placed the 4th re- 
giment under the command of Harrison, then Governor of 
Indiana ; ordered him to raise four hundred volunteers, and 
proceed to the Indian country. The order was so promptly 
obeyed, that our gallant little army of 800 men arrived at Tip- 
pecanoe before Tecumthe had returned from the South. When 
Harrison reached the settlement, twelve" hundred warriors had 
already assembled. He sent for the chiefs— they came to his 
camp. He told them their great father had not sent him to 
fighi but to settle their complaints amicably ; and he invited 
them to meet him in council ; they promised to do so the next 
day, and then returned to their village. An hour or two before 

day! in a dark > fo =§y ni ? ht > the attack was made Wlth £ reat 
fury. The conflict lasted nearly two hours, and until daylight 
enabled him to see the position of the Indians, when a vigorous 
charge was ordered, which terminated in their defeat and dis- 
persion. The army then marched to the village and destroyed 
it. We may safely affirm that this was the first instance in 
which American troops have sustained themselves against a su- 
perior force of Indians, in a night attack of two hour's continu- 
ance. As fruits of this victory, the treaty was preserved, and 
the peace and safety of the frontier secured. It was from this 
battle, so important to the govornment and people of Indiana, 
and so brilliant in the mode of its achievement, against a des- 
perate foe, that General Harrison derived the appellation ol the 
" Hero of Tippecanoe." 



68 

The savages on the frontier of Indiana, having been thus de- 
feated and scattered, Governor Harrison, hearing that they 
were taking scalps and breaking up the settlements on the 
frontier of Ohio, resigned his commission as Governor and su- 
perintendent of Indian afiairs, together with their emoluments, 
repaired to Cincinnati, and volunteered in our defence. In a 
few months he succeeded in scattering the savages on our bor- 
ders ; a part of them he drove to the lakes, and the residue he 
compelled to remove to a place of safety within our settlements. 
By this operation the settlers on our frontier were relieved from 
danger and hundreds who had fled to the denser settlements of 
the state for protection, returned to their improvements, and oc- 
cupied them in safety. A person who has not an accurate know- 
ledge of the condition of the Northwestern portion of Ohio at 
the time of the late war, when it was an unbroken wilderness, 
without inhabitants other than aborigines, without roads, bridg- 
es, ferries, 01 improvements of any kind, cannot form any idea 
of the difficulties General Harrison encountered, in feeding, 
sustaining and keeping together his army. The difficulties and 
perplexities which beset him during all his campaigns are 
mown to but few, and cannot be justly appreciated by any; yet 
jy unceasing activity, and by the efforts of his powerful mind,"he 
overcame them all. But it is impossible to dwell on minutaei 
—a volume would not contain the halt of such a detail. Pres- 
sed[down by all those difficulties he kept the field 3 he never 
despaired for a moment, and such was the confidence reposed in 
his bravery and skill, by both officers and soldiers, that their 
spirits never flagged, their hopes never sunk. It is not generally 
known that the fleet built at Erie, by which the command of 
the lakes was obtained, was a project recommended by Gen. 
Harrison, and that it was adopted by Mr Madison, in conse- 
quence of his unbounded confidence in the prudence and sound 
judgment of him who proposed it. Before the period of which 
I am now speaking, General Harrison had been appointed a 
Major General in the Militia of Kentucky, by a law of that 
State, and had been appointed a Major General in the army of 
the United States by Mr Madison. 

Passing over a multitude of affairs of smaller moment let us 
point your attention to the memorable siege of Fort Meigs ; that 
work of defence consisting of a mud embankment and an enclo- 
sure of piquets, was defended; triumphantly and successfully, 
by about a thousand men, for many days, [if I mistake not, se- 
ven or eight,] against the attack of Proctor, who commanded 
an army of British and Indians at least four times the number 
of the besieged, furnished with all the apparatus for the occasion. 
Such wore the skill, the braverv and the indefatigable efforts of 
General Harrison, such was the success of ' • • repeated sallies 
he made, that he compelled the enemy to abandon the siege in 
despsir. h is worthy of remark, that on the second day of the 
attack, Proctor sent an officer with a flair to demaud the sur- 



69 



render of the post. The grounds of this demand were, that the 
American force was too weak to defend the works against the 
overwhelming force of the besiegers, and that General Proctor 
was anxious to save the effusion of hlood. The intrepid Harri- 
son promptly replied: "If Genera) Proctor knows the usages 
of war, as I am hound to helieve he dees, he must either 
have considered me ignorant of them, or he must have intended 
an insult. It was his duty to make the demand before he com- 
menced firing on the works. But, sir, (said he,) go hack and 
tell your General, that I know my own force and his, and that I 
shall defend the works to the last extremity. Tell him, further: 
that if he ever possesses the fort, he shall obtain it in a wuy that 
will give him more honor in the estimation of his government, 
than he could derive from a thousand surrenders ." Another 
incident is worthy of notice : — After the enemy had retired, a 
number of the Indians who had left them came into the fort, and 
stated that a contract had been entered into between Proctor and 
Tecumthe, that as soon as the fort surrendered, which they con- 
sidered inevitable, Harrison should be given up to the Indians to 
be disposed of as they might see proper. Harrison replied — 
" Then General Proctor can be neither a soldier nor a man. 
But if it shall ever be his fate to surrender to me, his life shall 
be protected, but I will dress him in a petticoat and deliver him 
over to the squaws, as being unworthy to associate with men." 
On this story, sir, was founded an infamous slander on Gen. 
Harrison, and a base insult to the ladies of Chilicothe, fabri- 
cated by a person whose name I will not stoop to mention, and 
published by the administration press. 

It was not long after the successful defence of this fort that 
our honored nominee led his victorious army into Fort Maiden, 
recaptured Detroit and the territory surrendered by the unfortu- 
nate Hull, and pursuing the enemy to the Thames, subdued the 
united forces of Proctor and Tecumthe, and captured the entire 
British army. 

The war having been t.'ius gloriously terminated in his own 
district, Harrison repaired to Erie, and tendered his services to 
the army operating in that quarter. Unfortunately, the Secreta- 
ry of War was there, who felt some private griefs unredressed, 
and was moreover envious of the laurels which Gen. Harrison 
had so dearly, but juslly, won. Being unwilling to see another 
added to the wreath, he ordered him to return to Ohio, where 
he had no further duty to perform, having already "brought the 
war to a close in that quarter. The order was obeyed. He re- 
turned to his family and immediately resigned his commission, 
declaring that he could not honestly eat the bread of the Go- 
vernment when he was denied the privilege of rendering service 
in return. Here, sir, terminated forever the brilliant military 
career of a hero who had won many victories, but who never lost 
a battle. 

Now, sir, let us look at this distinguished man in political 



70 

and private life. Time forbids to do more than name the sta- 
tions he has filled. When he resigned his first commission, 
which -was given him by the " Father of his Country," he was 
appointed Secretary of the Northwestern Territory. The Go- 
vernor being then absent, he was ex-qfficio acting Governor, and 
vested with all the Executive power of the Territory, which he 
executed with great prudence, and to the approbation of the 
Government and people. In 1799, the Territorial Legislature 
(myself being one of them) appointed him the Delegate to re- 
present the Territory in the Congress of the United States. His 
election had been opposed by a numerous class of men who had 
purchased land from his lather in-law, and had settled on and 
improved it. They had failed to obtain a title from the vendor, 
and were at the mercy of Congress, liable to he dispossessed at 
any moment. They wished to obtain pre-emption rights and 
other indulgences. It was the interest and the anxious desire 
of the vendor to defeat their object. On this account they en- 
treated the Legislature not to appoint Mr Harrison, helieviug 
that he would be governed by the views of his father-in-law, 
and oppose their claims. He was, notwithstanding, chosen, 
and, to the surprise of those men, he voluunteered in their 
cause, and, though against his own ultimate interest, he pro- 
cured for them the boon they were so anxious to obtain. 

At the same session he procured the passing of an act requir- .- 
ing the public lands to be surveyed and sold in small tracts^ 
Under the former law, it was impossible for a poor man to be- 
come a purchaser from Government— he was compelled to pur- 
chase from the speculator at an advanced price. But by the 
amendment every poor man in the nation, if industrious, might 
become an independent freeholder; and, sir, it is public history, 
that thousands and thousands have become so, and every emi- 
grant who now removes to the West from any part of the Union 
has the same privilege. The benefit which has been derived 
by the industrious poor, from the successful effort of Gen. Har- 
rison, is beyond the pjwer of numbers to compute. Having 
accomplished these important objects in Congress, he resigned 
his seat and was appointed Governor of Indiana. He adminis- 
tered that Government twelve years, with such ability, benig- 
nity, and success, that all the portion of its present population, 
who resided there under his administration, look up to him as 
the political father of their State. We next find him represent- 
ing the people in the Legislature of Ohio, then in the House of 
Representatives ol the United States, afterwards in the Senate 
of the United States, and lastly we see him the Ambassador of 
his Government at the Court of the haughty Bolivar. In all 
these stations he has received from the Government and the 
j eople the plaudit of " well done, my good and faithful servant," 
and, it may be added, this has been his only reward, 



71 



Suffer me to say here, that it is the settled and publicly ex- 
pressecTopiriion of General Harrison, that no man, however great, 
wise and good, should bere-elected President of these United 
States. To the prevalence of the opposite opinion, he ascrihes 
most of the corruption and strife which have agitated and dis- 
graced the nation, and I add, that if elected, he will enter on the 
duties of the office, having no grief to avenge, and no obligations 
to fulfil, in relation to individuals. 

And now, sir, what more can I add ? I have attempted to 
throw a ray of light on the almost forgotten life of one of the 
most useful, virtuous, and patriotic citizens our country has ever 
produced. From an intimate and confidential acquaintance 
with him of more than forty years standing, I can speak ex ca- 
thedra. The single fact, that, after he has held all these offices 
with abundant opportunities of accumulating wealth at the ex- 
pense of his country, he has retired to private life, compara- 
tively poor, is enough to place him on a level with Aristides. 

Had he nothing more to complain of but the blighting negli- 
gence of his own government, which has compelled him, Cin- 
cinnatus-like, to labor at the plough for the bread which feeds 
his family, it might be endured. But, sir, it is not so; malice 
has assailed his character, and thousands who know him not 
have innocently yielded to it their assent. An attempt to 
refute charges against his bravery, would be as insulting to him 
as it would be ridiculous in the eyes of the world. Insinuations 
have been made injurious to his moral character} those who 
know him personally smile at the folly of *such efforts 5 and let 
me say to all others, that a man of purer moral character does 
not inhabit our land. When everything else fails, they proclaim 
at the top of their voices that he is an imbecile old man. Sir, I 
had the pleasure of taking him by the hand the morning I left 
home. Scarcely a week passes in which I do not see and con- 
Terse with him ; and let me assure you and this assembly, and 
the American people, that his mind is as vigorous, as active, and 
as discriminating, as it was m (he meridian of his days ; that 
he enjoys fine health, and all the bodily vigor and activity which 
belongs to a man of sixty five or sixtysix. 

***** 



LIFE OF HARRISON, 

BY R. HILDRETH. 
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